Quality craftsmanship in the public sector?

Many Ramsgate residents live in listed buildings or in a house contained in one of the many conservation areas dotted about the town. When deciding to do repairs or alterations to your listed or conserved building you have no doubt come across the many restrictions placed on their owners. One particular requirement is the quality of craftsmanship and appropriate materials used in the works.

 

The picture above shows a “quality” repair carried out to a Grade II listed structure on behalf of KCC, after the brick pillar leapt out in front of a stationary vehicle which happened to be passing at the time. I will leave it to your opinion as to whether or not you think this is an appropriate repair. As least it shows what quality of workmanship is acceptable in the public sector. If the vehicle’s insurer had to pay for this repair I wonder whether they would be happy with a similar quality on a vehicle repair.

 While I am banging on about this subject, I thought it right to mention Eastcliff Lift, you know, the one renovated with “loadsa” money from a Lottery fund, complete with beautiful tiled floors. Another inappropriate repair!. There may be an excuse of no money for restoration but there is no excuse for spending good money on shoddy repairs to good buildings.

“How green is your house?”

The recent post at Thanetonline with a link to a Mail Online article exposing the true cost of wind power renewable energy, which shows a huge lake of radio-active pollution in China where neodymium is extracted for turbine magnets, calls into question “Is there any form of energy production which does not harm the environment?”.

I don’t think anybody has much faith in the “green” credentials of nuclear generation and without the mountains and valleys to provide opportunities for hydro-generation, there seems little option but to continue polluting until a really clean solution can be found.

However, on the principle of “what goes in must come out” we should be thinking of new ways to stop the energy being lost, so that less has to be generated in the first place. This unfortunately is not a very “sexy” option to get elected on, so politicians do not shout about it. Also the energy generation companies will not get fat by providing too much energy conservation.

 

For those unfamiliar “SAP” stands for “Standard Assessment Procedure” the way energy consumption of buildings is measured.

Studies I carried out in 1996 came up with some very surprising results, I am not claiming that they are particularly accurate as they were, in part, based only on nationally published statistics. Their accuracy is not particularly important, as much as the overall picture they paint. The majority of UK housing stock dates back to the two World Wars and beyond, when there were no energy controls. Building Regulations 1965 was the first date at which insulation was required to be included in dwellings, only 45 years ago.

The older dwellings originally built without insulation and improved on an “ad hoc” basis, will continue to provide the bulk of the UK housing stock for decades, maybe centuries to come, there is no possibility of wholesale clearance and replacement. This is particularly relevant in Thanet where so many listed buildings exist, upgrading insulation without harming architectural features is an extremely difficult balance but such a challenge must be undertaken if we are to really tackle the excesses of pollution in modern society.