No one is leading but you can take action

A crisis needs two responses, an emergency ‘band aid’ (furlough, with COVID) and ‘surgery’, to protect against reemergence (vaccines), both at pace.

The energy crisis has had neither.

Even when the Westminster political farce anoints the new PM, she will announce the equivalent of furlough, needed, too late but a band aid that does nothing for the future of pockets, climate, or energy security, nor to keep the lights on, yes rationing is a real possibility.

Local government is largely inept on the topic. Well meaning, but of no impact.

Perhaps the astronomic price increases will affect behaviour, though my village hasn’t changed consumption at all in the last 10 years and it’s 50 per cent above national average.

The ‘surgery’ starts with saving energy. The leakiest housing in Europe was being addressed a decade ago with the insulation programme but the ‘green crap’ policy put an end to that.

Every pound of ‘band aid’ should be coupled with a pound of ‘surgery’.

Being realistic it’s not going to happen immediately, so help yourself and your community.

Every one per cent saving is one per cent less carbon and is baked in.

Let’s Insulate at pace.

In Cookham we have started to train Energy Champions who can understand the priorities and help deliver energy saving solutions.

We need more, for £100, you can be trained.

Why not get your street to club together and fund your champion? Councils, why not chip in?

This is an emergency, let’s act like it. Innovate, buy insulation in bulk etc.

The ‘surgery’ doesn’t end there.

We need to electrify, invest in renewables individually and as a community.

However, there is a chronic situation with larger scale renewables.

The planning laws make it incredibly difficult to develop wind or solar.

The RBWM local plan specifies 14k new homes but zero renewable deployments and, for example, takes no lead on wind and delegates to parishes.

In turn, some (if not all) take the attitude, ‘not in my backyard’, even though larger scale deployments can bring significant financial benefits to the community. Challenge your Neighbourhood Plans. Public sentiment is changing.

A recent survey, for example, showed onshore wind farms are more popular (80 per cent) than pizza, Netflix or the Queen, even rural communities giving 66 per cent suppor t.

Yet, no single windmill of size is allowed in the borough even beside the M4.

Solar farms must be hidden unlike 14k new homes, but still no support.

The same land use for solar could supply close to Maidenhead’s annual residential electricity demand.

The inept national energy policy will change (and with it local policy) following the July landmark ruling that the government is acting unlawfully by not having realistic net zero plans and given eight months to produce such. However, we must look after ourselves.

Insulate, reduce energy use and emissions, with the local resilience of sensitive boroughwide generation.

Times are changing, we must too.

PAUL STRZELECKI

Cookham