Salford Council’s Environmental Crime
It’s 9.30 a.m. on a gloriously sunny Boxing Day, and I’ve just been past the council’s ill-advised Ice Rink. I can’t help noticing that, in addition to running a massively carbon-intensive ice rink, they’ve been sure to add to its carbon footprint by leaving the floodlights on all night and into the day. I’ll have to swing by later and check if they’re still on, but I’m rather unimpressed. Other councils (one’s that manage to run an ice rink at a profit that is) have taken care to offset the carbon their rinks emit – not so our lot. I wonder where that number for the council’s Environmental Crimes unit is?
Edit: it’s midday, there are staff manning the rink, the floodlights are still on.
Edit 2: Having now spoken to the staff manning the rink I have discovered that turning off the lights is impossible without switching off the generator that keeps the ice rink frozen. What an incredibly wasteful setup – seven weeks of floodlighting, 24 hours solid. But then, why should the company managing the rink care about wasting electicity – after all, its the council (tax payer) that foots the bill for it? I really object to this kind of thoughtless waste.
12:46 pm on December 26th, 2008
Thanks for your work taking time out of your busy family life to investigate this matter for us Steve. I’m sure Salfordians are grateful to you for revealing the power wastage. I hope you’ll raise it with the council and the local press. Cheers Steve.
5:50 pm on December 26th, 2008
A couple of years ago I asked about the Christmas lights at the Civic Centre being left on during the day, and was told that there was no mechanism for switching them off!
5:57 pm on December 26th, 2008
I’ve just dug up the e-mail, this is what it said:
“To enable the tree to be switched off during the day, alterations would have to be made to the wiring system and additional items of equipment purchased to facilitate this. This would probably out weigh the energy savings this year.”
That was in 2006.
9:07 pm on December 26th, 2008
No excuse then – short term gain, long term pain. Typical short-sightedness.
10:51 am on December 27th, 2008
you may have accidentally misled people that manchesters ice rink is run at a profit in fact manchester makes a significant contribution to Xmas festivities The figures you have quoted in the past are figures relating to the contribution to the general economy. When I am back I will look into the spotlIght issue for next years festivities
11:46 am on December 27th, 2008
Manchester’s ice rink is of massive benefit to the local economy, and hence to the tax-payer. Salford’s ice rink has no proven or even estimated benefit to the local economy and is additionally run at a loss. Ergo, in those terms, Manchester’s ice rink is something that can be supported, and ours is not.