Author Topic: Happy New Year  (Read 6080 times)

Offline Local Hiker

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 165
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #15 on: January 10, 2023, 11:33:08 PM »
I am a little late, but Happy New Year to all. I shall refrain from saying anything disparaging towards Government or Industry.

Offline MartinR

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1592
  • Currrent having an extended stay in hospital.
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #14 on: January 03, 2023, 09:12:16 AM »
I think, and I haven't got references for this, that part of the reason is the planned move from gas to hydrogen.  Hydrogen will pass through leaks and porosities far more easily than methane.

Offline stuartwaters

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 902
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2023, 10:38:24 PM »
I would imagine that it's something to do with the fact that the old cast iron gas mains tended to spring leaks eventually. When that happened, eventually something would go bang and when that happened there was a good chance people would die, hence the need to replace the old cast iron gas mains with plastic ones. In the old days when sewage systems were owned and run by local councils, they had a say in the planning consent process. Since 1991 however when the industry was privatised, that has no longer been the case. This means that developers can put up hundreds of houses and just plug the waste water infrastructure for all those new houses into the existing system meaning that eventually it will be running at 100% capacity all the time and when we have, for example a period of prolonged rain, it gets overwhelmed and spills into water courses or the sea. That, and continual cost cutting by the privatised water companies who for the most part are owned by foreign investors means that things are not maintained, are only fixed when they break and that's only the minimum repair needed to get things going again. Often, built in redundancy is allowed to degrade so that plant is reduced to running at 100% and is left with a single point of failure. This isn't confined to our local provider, all the waste water companies are guilty of it and they're all very sorry and promise to improve when they're hauled in front of the courts by the Environment Agency and fined hundreds of millions of pounds of our money.


But never mind, as long as the shareholders get their dividends and the executives their fat bonuses, all is right with the world, right? Plus, it keeps me in a job.
"I did not say the French would not come, I said they will not come by sea" - Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent.

Offline Lutonman

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 367
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #12 on: January 02, 2023, 03:22:28 PM »
Hi Stuart,
I never understood why it was that when the Gas industry started replacing mains and services in large numbers that the Water industry stayed did very little. Playing catch up now is too late and brings on the problems you now have, the gas industry still has many problems. I did plenty of research on frozen pipes and our surveys and re-wrote the SGN policy on leakage policy just before I retired.   

Offline stuartwaters

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 902
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #11 on: January 02, 2023, 02:04:39 PM »
Happy New year to you all. It is good that a small number us have managed to keep together and particular thanks to Stuart for keeping the forum going despite his other duties.

Thank you for that Lutonman. To be honest, there are a few reasons why work is busy. One is the sad fact that my employers biggest client Southern Water have, like the rest of the privatised waste water industry, have been guilty of being more concerned with paying shareholder dividends than in maintaining their infrastructure. It is going to take many billions of pounds to put right 30-odd years of doing the bare minimum necessary to prevent the system completely collapsing. That and the continued willingness of people to put things in their drains that they weren't designed to cope with.

[/quote]
"I did not say the French would not come, I said they will not come by sea" - Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent.

Offline stuartwaters

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 902
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #10 on: January 02, 2023, 01:53:11 PM »
Well Stuart, my hopes and plans for the coming year are really quite simple.  Now that I've had my heart op, try to regain some fitness.  Following on from that, get out to my poor yacht which has been swinging at her moorings sadly neglected.  I've got about 50% of a history of the individual bells at the Cathedral, and the inscriptions thereon, written - I must try and finish that.  Most importantly of the lot though, try to keep this damn cancer at bay and try and make three score years and ten!  And then there's the half built lyre which I need to finish and learn to play, and I really ought to get back to practising the recorder.  I'll try and fit in some history somewhere" ;)


MartinR, glad to read that you're on the mend. I'd be very interested to read about the bells at Rochester so I'm looking forward to that. I'd also be interested to read about your adventures on your yacht. The reason I bought a caravan rather than a boat is because my wife doesn't do boats or ships at all. Probably a good thing really because if I had a sailing boat, she'd never see me and we'd probably be divorced by now.
"I did not say the French would not come, I said they will not come by sea" - Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent.

Offline Lutonman

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 367
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2023, 10:22:31 AM »
Happy New year to you all. It is good that a small number us have managed to keep together and particular thanks to Stuart for keeping the forum going despite his other duties.


Must try harder to post this year.

Offline MartinR

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1592
  • Currrent having an extended stay in hospital.
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #8 on: January 01, 2023, 10:19:11 PM »
Well Stuart, my hopes and plans for the coming year are really quite simple.  Now that I've had my heart op, try to regain some fitness.  Following on from that, get out to my poor yacht which has been swinging at her moorings sadly neglected.  I've got about 50% of a history of the individual bells at the Cathedral, and the inscriptions thereon, written - I must try and finish that.  Most importantly of the lot though, try to keep this damn cancer at bay and try and make three score years and ten!  And then there's the half built lyre which I need to finish and learn to play, and I really ought to get back to practising the recorder.  I'll try and fit in some history somewhere" ;)

Offline Lyn L

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 209
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #7 on: January 01, 2023, 08:00:41 PM »
A late Happy New Year  to you all and hope for a more peaceful one 


Offline de Mol

  • New Member
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2023, 03:00:51 PM »
Wishing a Happy New Year to all from Germany :) @ Stuart.Thank you for your committment and dedication !
Martin.

Offline MartinR

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1592
  • Currrent having an extended stay in hospital.
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #5 on: January 01, 2023, 12:20:46 AM »
Well now it actually is 2023 - Happy New Year to all.

Offline DaveTheTrain

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 313
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2022, 11:42:26 PM »
Evening all, happy New year from East Kent.  I hope you all had a good Christmas and will have a peaceful 2023.  My 2023 resoution is to be ready with a photo for GTP. And hello to Castle, keep up the good work.


DTT

Offline castle261

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 603
  • Life is for living - Love is for giving.
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2022, 11:14:21 PM »
 Happy New Year to all KHF - Thank you Stuart for another successful year !
 Hello Dave THE Train.

Offline grandarog

  • Mr
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1276
  • Man of Kent .Born and Bred.
Re: Happy New Year
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2022, 07:25:42 PM »
Thanks Stuart .A Happy New Year to all our members and followers. Lets hope for Peace in the World and a better Government of the UK.

Offline stuartwaters

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 902
Happy New Year
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2022, 06:00:39 PM »
Here's wishing everyone on the Forum a healthy, happy and prosperous 2023.


This past year has been challenging to say the least. Work and home stuff have been taking up 99% of my time, giving me little in the way of opportunities to sit down and research for new essays on here. As members know, my main interests history-wise are the men, ships and social context of the 'Nelsons Navy' era, say 1750ish to 1820ish and that's where I concentrate my researches.


"Guess the Place" has been by far the most popular thing on the Forum and is the only area which sees any consistent activity. I don't mind that, it keeps traffic coming to the site.


The site is pretty much runs itself which is also good news for me and apart from the odd hiccup (like me not reinstalling the SSL certificate in time despite plenty of warning - my bad!) it's been stable.


So, things for me to do in the next 12 months, Forum related:


1) Continue researching and publishing the stories of the ships which were built in Kent which contributed to our nation becoming the superpower it once was as well as the men who crewed and commanded them.


2) Recover more stuff from the Old Forum as far as possible.


3) Widen my researches into subjects such as the histories of the shipyards which built the ships. I got a book for Christmas about shipwrecks in the Thames Estuary which I hope will form the basis of research into that field. I've also been interested in the English Civil Wars and hope to look into researching and writing essays about those wars insofar as they affected our County.


How about you? Please share your hopes and plans for 2023.
"I did not say the French would not come, I said they will not come by sea" - Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent.