黑洞社区

Overruled

If you were in any doubt about who pulls the strings on green policy in government there was a rather telling revelation tucked away in one of my own columnists鈥� columns this week. Blogging for 黑洞社区.co.uk, Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said he understands 鈥渁 senior Treasury official鈥� 鈥渋ntervened鈥� in the Department of Energy and Climate Change鈥檚 consultation on the government鈥檚 planned 拢900m cuts to its building retrofit subsidy scheme, the Energy Companies Obligation. Apparently Treasury officials were not happy with a question that raised the prospect of the scheme being revived to its current levels in 2017 and successfully got it removed from the consultation questions, even though they had already been made public.

Hero of the hour

The generosity of people and firms who have helped to clear up the damage wreaked by the dreadful floods earlier this year has rightly been a source of national pride. News reaches us that contractor Willmott Dixon has also been getting stuck in with the rebuild effort. The firm is sponsoring repairs to a number of buildings in Somerset and some of its trainee managers are volunteering to undertake weekend repair work. Homeowners Phil and Maria Maye, whose insurance was cruelly declared void after the flood, were reduced to tears when told Willmott Dixon would repair their house. Maria Maye told the local paper: 鈥淲e are overwhelmed, I cannot put our thanks into words.鈥� Meanwhile, the firm last week won a Queen鈥檚 Award for Enterprise for its work in sustainable development. Very admirable stuff and I doff my hat to all involved.

The birds and the bees

Pest control is part and parcel of facilities management and normally requires a deadly arsenal of traps and poisons to ward off rats, roaches and the like. Word reaches us from Lingfield Point business park near Darlington that they鈥檝e found a novel way of keeping another menace, pesky seagulls, from bothering tenants, which include architecture practice FaulknerBrowns. Step forward Freya the hawk, who has been recruited to chase away the gulls. Freya鈥檚 handler Colin Hinde, who is also Lingfield Point鈥檚 beekeeper, says: 鈥淎lthough I enjoy looking after the bees, I鈥檝e lost count of the number of times I鈥檝e been stung. I鈥檓 not expecting any trouble out of Freya, she鈥檚 very mild-mannered.鈥� Sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.