Date published: 2008/11/17
The Cambridge News says:
A hydro-electric power station could be part of a £4.4 million revamp of Jesus Green, it has emerged.
A new £63,000 entrance near the river boardwalk and a "play boat" for children are also on the cards as a detailed cost breakdown of the massive project can today be revealed by the News.
The mini hydro-electric generator on the River Cam weir, costing £292,000, would generate enough electricity a year for 16 homes and could power the green's toilets.
Other elements of the Jesus Green scheme, which is seeking lottery funding, include a £500,000 two-tier café outside the Jesus Green lido, a £120,000 adventure playground, a £100,000 toilets/kiosk building and an ecological garden featuring £10,000 worth of ponds.
But residents have warned Cambridge City Council that the scheme, which includes the felling of 59 trees, will be deeply unpopular.
...
The scheme was initially due to cost about £2 million, but more detailed plans show it will cost £4.4 million - with £1.1 million coming from city council funds. The rest of the money will come from the lottery, it is hoped.
...
Other costs involved in the scheme include £126,000 to train council staff, £123,000 for planting of two shrubland areas and a £216,000 piazza near the cycle bridge.
This is a classic case of what is wrong with government bureaucracy. Just a few weeks ago they said the scheme would cost 2 million pounds, and now suddenly it's doubled in price. And there's not really any need for any of the proposal. Jesus Green is pretty fine as it stands. Sure, it could do with the pavements being re-paved. And no doubt the pool could be spruced up a bit. But the city could perfectly well stump up the money for that if it wanted. It seems what we have here is a proposal driven by the need to impress the lottery funding supremos so that Cambridge will be thrown lots of money which it doesn't need. The mini hydro-electric generator in particular seems like a crackpot idea. Even assuming the claim about 16 homes is correct (extremely unlikely), that works out at a capital cost of almost 20k pounds each, and if maintenance is 10% of the capital cost (which would not be unusual) then that would work out at around 2k per annum per household. So not exactly a cheap source of eletricity. Presumably this is being thrown into the pot so they can claim the scheme is "green". Funny how being "green" involves spending huge amounts of money unnecessarily. Hopefully the other proposals before the lottery agency are more deserving.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").