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Hoo Peninsular continued ..

There are many commentators within the green community who deplore the use of coal as a form of fuel and see the building of new power stations as a retrograde step. However justified their fears are, the problem must be addressed from a realistic viewpoint. Vast reserves of coal lie untapped under the surface of the ground. As the supply of oil and gas become scarcer, more expensive and more politically problematic, countries in Europe and beyond will turn to coal as an alternative. The effect of releasing carbon dioxide from the power stations of these countries will be disastrous. There is therefore an urgent reason to promote technical means by which this might be prevented from happening. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the most important candidate technology.

At its most basic, carbon capture technology removes carbon dioxide from flue gasses and pumps it to underground reservoirs for storage. If done correctly it should store carbon dioxide for at least a few hundred years. Geological structures exist that would extend this timescale to many thousands of years.

Kingsnorth should be a working example of this technology.

Administrative Precedents

There are precedents for the powers of such a governing authority. The power to grant planning permission for developmental aims has been given to Development Corporations- usually on area of land identified at the time that they are set up. Urban regeneration has often been a goal of development corporations but other objectives are possible. For example the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was set up to manage public sector involvement in the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. It is to provide the venues and infrastructure. In conjunction with the ondon Development Agency (LDA), the ODA has powers of land acquisition, including compulsory purchace. The authority will also have the power to levy other charges such as congestion charges or derive income from the grant of operating licences for public transport.

The Hoo Peninsula Renewal City

The Hoo Peninsula, which contains Kingsnorth is approximately 120 square kilometres, with a population of 25,000. This proposal is to use 50 square kilometres of this area to build a renewal city. It would

have a population in excess of 250,000 people. The value of the associated planning permission will be in the order of £10 billion - planning permission for 100,000 dwellings at £100,000 per dwelling.

This proposal is that a significant proportion of the wealth generated by Hoo Renewal City should be set aside to fund full carbon capture at Kingsnorth. This would be a very large operation and the carbon capture technology is as yet in its infancy.

The remainder of the wealth generated by the city should be used to promote lifestyles for the citizens that can realistically begin to reverse the upward trend of greenhouse gases.

This is not the place to be too prescriptive. However the planning authorities might consider carbon negative building techniques, restricting the use of cars and subsidising public transport.

Moreover Hoo Peninsula Renewal City is rural enough to aim for a high degree of local self-sufficiency. In particular, basic food production should, as far as possible be local.

Town Planning Precedents

There are examples of cities built to address the issue of climate change. The UK is planning a series of eco-towns with special conditions for planning permission. The buildings must be "zero energy" or "carbon neutral". These terms have similar effect in practice. A zero energy building a general term applied to a building with a net energy consumption of zero over a typical year. Wikipedia reports this criticism:

"Most ZEB definitions do not include the emissions generated in the construction of the building and the embodied energy of the structure which would usually invalidate claims of reducing carbon emissions."

An example of such a development is the Beddinton Zero Energy Development (BedZED). The Peabody Trust Website describes BedZED as follows:

"The BedZED design concept was driven by the desire to create a net 'zero fossil energy development', one that will produce at least as much energy from renewable sources as it consumes. Only energy from renewable sources is used to meet the energy needs of the development. BedZED is therefore a carbon neutral development - resulting in no net addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere." Continued ...