Mike Parker, Chairman of SeSaME, writes…
STRANGE how crucial decisions take us back to where we were before, knowing how they didn’t pass muster.
Decades ago nuclear power was the hot answer to our energy needs, despite solar, off shore and onshore wind, hydro and battery technology being the cleanest option.
Early 1980s saw the nuclear industry seeking planning permission for test drilling in the Vale, seeking to utilize our clay soil’s impermeability for storage of high level nuclear waste.
Evesham Friends of the Earth ran a competition to guess where it might go. The prize was an original poem personally typed by Terry Jones. I won. A gentle, but potent dig at the haves, not joining the have nots, still evident today. Makes me smile.
They didn’t want it in London
There are too many folk there (with friends),
And they couldn’t go and put it near Brighton,
Because that’s where they spend their week-ends.
They ruled out all places near Windsor
Where you just don’t know who it offends,
And Berkshire is frightfully pretty
And so are the Downs and the Thames.
The Chilterns are too full of tourists
On whom our whole country depends,
And Kent has such lovely houses,
And it’s just far too wet in the Fens.
And Henley and Sidcup and Finchley
Are all places one…. somehow …. defends….
So they thought that they’d dump it in Evesham,
Just where the rainbow ends.
This poem is respectfully dedicated to the
Champion Nuclear Test Drill Spotter,
With best wishes from
Terry Jones
Sellafield, Chernobyl and Fukushima quickly made nuclear a too hot topic. If we had welcomed Scottish Power’s 2010 commercial wind turbines north of Evesham, expanding local funding to continue SeSaME’s insulation work with Wychavon Officers and Central grant money, I wouldn’t be telling a village pensioner in our oil buying syndicate his 1000 litres of oil would cost £1000, and did he want it.
It’s likely he would no longer depend on oil. We have gone full circle. We plan to approve 8 Nuclear Power Stations in 10 years. Where will toxic waste go?
Not in London dust think?
