The bureaucrats have done it again

As regular readers may have noticed, I tend to steam around the neck and emit loud screams of outrage at the antics of bureaucrats who get too full of themselves, and make our lives miserable as a result. The latest example of their stupidity comes from Wales in the UK.

Regulations are forcing a Welsh steam train to use coal shipped 3,000 miles from Siberia rather than from a mine three miles away.

Planning conditions on the Ffos-y-Fran mine in South Wales mean that coal has to be transported by rail rather than via local roads.

However there is no rail link between the mine and the Brecon Mountain Railway, so the local coal cannot be used.

The Siberian coal is shipped to the UK, then moved in containers to Hull, after which it is transported by road to Merthyr Tydfil.




Jayne Hills, the tourist railway's owner, told The Telegraph the regulations were particularly annoying as the local coal would be ideal for use in the newly converted steam locomotive.

'It seems ludicrous that we could get coal from three miles away but instead are being forced to import it from 3000 miles away.

'Being from Merthyr, where everyone has a relative who was a coal miner, or knew somebody who was a miner, this seems just crazy.'

. . .

According to The Telegraph, the mine's operator are now applying to change the planning conditions so that five per cent of its coal can be taken out of lorries.

Stephen Tillman, managing director of Miller Argent, told the newspaper the situation was 'ludicrous'.

'The alternative source is Russia for dry steam coal and, obviously it's travelling huge distances and it's up to 60 times the carbon footprint in terms of travel,' he said.

There's more at the link.

Sometimes I'm at a loss for words . . . except those I can't publish here for fear of offending those with delicate sensibilities.





Peter