The middle of February witnessed a UK wide demo by the younger generation taking a day off school to raise the issue of Climate Change which threatens their futures and the well-being of the planet. Although directed at the Government, the UK has lead the World by reducing emissions by over 40% since 1990 whilst the USA, China and South America continue to be the major polluters burning fossil fuels.

In the UK the Met-Office Climate Prediction of 2018 predicted hotter,drier summers (rainfall down 47%) with temperatures up by 5.4 centigrade by 2070 and warmer, wetter winters(rainfall up 35%).

The forecast for 2019 expects it to emerge as the hottest in the last 5 years. Locally 2019 has already been exceptionally dry with January recording only 16.7mm (30% of average) and February 19.7mm (47% of average) rainfall respectively. As I write the weeks temperatures are expected to rise towards the 1998 record of 19.7 centigrade.

J.Arnold

What’s in a name? Last October I introduced the Midway Development at J16 which has subsequently been named Panattoni Park. An unusual name for
Northamptonshire and clearly of Italian origin. The Company was formed in 1986 by the Panattoni Family in Newport Beach, California and is now the largest international real estate developer specialising in industrial estates and warehouses. Panattoni is a part of Panattoni Europe where they have developed over 30M sq. ft. of new build industrial estates. Recently in a merger with First Industrial to form First Panattoni they have expanded into the area of logistics with development for Stanley (Black and Decker) on the Brackmill Estate. Clearly they see the continued expansion of the so-called Golden Triangle of Logistics, an area from the East Midlands up to Nottingham and extending west to Northampton. The claim of Companies within this area is to deliver anywhere in the UK within 4 hours with a 90% success rate. Whilst the Northampton site ground preparation is ongoing, planning has been submitted to SNC for installation of lighting and security cameras. The whole site which includes provision for parking space for 140 lorries at the Red Lion is due for completion at the end of 2019.

At the recent Climate Change Conference concerns were expressed on the 2
degree centigrade cap set as a target for controlling Worldwide Environmental pollution and a new limit of 1.5 was agreed. Nobody can be in any doubt that global changes are increasing with 2018 seeing a succession of catastrophes from earthquakes, landslides, flooding, hurricanes and storms and volcanic activity as well as our general climate. The latest record hurricane, Michael to hit Florida and the new storm, Leslie to hit Portugal and Spain with flash floods and landslides in Majorca and the devastation in the west of the UK by storm Callum are testament to the effect of changes. Locally Northamptonshire has fared significantly better with the River Nene at record low for most of the year. The only flooding event of the year occurred at the end of March when the monthly rainfall was nearly double that of an average March. For the year, the rainfall totalled 70% of average with March, April and December being the only months to exceed average levels. From June through to November rainfall totalled 44% of average for that period.

J.Arnold