Seaplanes in Suffolk

Having experienced travel by seaplanes in Canada and noticing that the geography, costs and legislation are roughly similar; I consider that seaplane services could be viable in East Anglia and their feasibility as transport infrastructure should be studied further. However it is a chicken and egg situation. My investigation into obtaining grant aid from the Technology Strategy Board for a feasibility study finds that I must be a capitalist with matched funding and have intellectual property to stake on the project. Sadly I have neither. Surely there is a means somehow to fund a study to prove (or disprove) the case for developing local transport infrastructure and amenities without requiring private equity? I set out my case here in the hope that someone can advise me further.

Addendum: scroll to the end to see some results of enquiries.

Like many other places, in British Columbia seaplanes are unremarkable and everyday transport.

Seaplanes provide scheduled services to everywhere there is water with sufficient surface area.

Seaplanes can operate safely in busy harbours amidst other traffic such as at Ganges Harbour on Salt Spring Island.

All you need to create a seaplane port is a dock and a sock. The runways are provided by nature.

Vancouver International Airport is connected to a several docks providing a vast seaplane network serving the west coast of the USA and Canada. King George Dock and London City Airport have even less distance between them.

Seaplanes have practically zero impact on water quality. It is less than boats with their poisonous anti-fouling paint and fuel-tainted bilge water.

This is how you take seaplanes out of the water for servicing.

 

The most popular craft are the De Havilland Beaver and Twin Otter. Worldwide demand for seaplanes has kept these planes in continuous production for nearly 50 years.

Seaplanes serve the urban centres of waterfront cities such as New York, Seattle and Vancouver, where a new city terminal is under construction. A seaplane service operating from the River Thames would reduce the demand on London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and the pressure to expand them.

Seaplane trials on the Thames were tried in 1949. Today there is far less river traffic to potentially interfere with each other.

A suggestion for a Suffolk route mixing business and tourism markets. For example, golfers could be carried outbound, fresh oysters could come back inbound.

Light aircraft are very competitive with other transport modes in cost, carbon emissions and convenience when speed is the passengers' priority. Seaplanes are even more so with their lower infrastructure costs.

There is substantial demand for fast and efficient business travel between London and Suffolk. Without it, the region will lose billions in investment and tax revenue to elsewhere.

There is a small population under the potential flight path. The noise of aircraft at take-off is less than a tractor.

The present transport infrastructure serving Suffolk is at capacity and prone to failure.

We can't just keep building more roads to increase their capacity.

Building more roads for more efficient transport would negate the carbon emissions saved. Seaplanes should be considered as part of a national transport strategy.

Seaplane travel would fit well with established tourism in Suffolk.

There are several potential locations in Suffolk for a seaplane port that are suitable, affordable and could generate revenue for local amenity development.

One site I would propose is presently derelict and zoned for industrial use. It could become both a seaplane port, training centre and a nature reserve. There would be a need for a national centre for seaplane development somewhere in Britain. This area was used for that in the 1930s.

It has good connections to other transport modes serving Europe and Great Britain. Services from here could connect to those from the continent.

Harwich to Ostend in under an hour

Local investment is now being made to improve rail capacity and journey times. The £5M Ipswich 'chord' will reduce the rail distance to the north without shunting by 100 miles.

Suitable infrastructure is already in place to begin trials.

Seaplanes need not be limited to light aircraft operation. Multi-mode transfer between ships, rail and seaplanes used to be the way we travelled. Modern materials and technology could produce even more efficient, quieter and safer aircraft than were built before. The US Navy successfully tested jet-engined flying boats.

Seaplanes in Britain are an infant industry ripe for investment and growth. What is holding us back? Report after report points to the UK regulatory conditions framed by agencies unfamiliar with seaplane operations.

The barriers to seaplane operations in the UK are not the natural conditions but the lack of a strategic policy commitment in government. A report on regulations by FUSETRA concluded: “The seaplane and amphibian operation in Europe is a niche market and it is out of the focus of the involved authorities…”

Further reading:

The FUSETRA program is studying the potential of seaplane transport and the ways to harmonize across Europe the different national aviation rules. Its initial reports concluded that there will be many benefits in developing a European seaplane industry.

A University of Glasgow presentation outlining the enormous potential for seaplanes.(pdf)

In 2007 Mott Macdonald transport consultants looked into what are now operational routes in Scotland. 

I wrote to Suffolk County Council to suggest they commission a seaplane feasibility study and got this reply by email.

I also gave this presentation in person (very quickly) to my MP and followed it up with an email. Rather than encourage or endorse this idea, she replied to my question about research grants by passing it to the Department for Transport. Their reply is that the private sector should be the ones to do this and it should not be supported by the taxpayer. The reply says look for advice at http://www.dft.gov.uk/topics/science-research/external

I also wrote to the UK's research councils for advice. On the 7th September I got the reply:

...Unfortunately the field that you describe is not an area within which the Economic and Social Research Council is active. You may wish to approach the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (www.epsrc.ac.uk), who may be able to be of assistance.

I tried them too with the same letter:

>I would be grateful if someone could give me any advice on how I can influence the research priorities of the government or the appropriate research councils to consider investment in amphibious aircraft technology and infrastructure in the UK.

They replied:

>EPSRC does indeed support research and PhD Training into advanced engineering which underpins some of the areas you describe in your e-mail.
 However, EPSRC is not a policy organisation or lobby group in a position to influence government policy in this area directly.
 Some of the research groups we support may be able to advise on how to raise funding for developing the infrastructure you describe. You can find more information about relevant EPSRC-funded groups on our website www.epsrc.ac.uk (see Grants on the Web option http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/).

Don't let the wheels fall off sustainable transport initatives.

For almost a year now I have been cycling 15 miles to work along the A12. On one of my first forays to find the optimum route I tried using this cycle path signed alongside the A12 at the B1121 turning to Saxmundham. Alas, I got cut to bits by brambles overhanging the path and progress was so slow avoiding the root eruptions and vegetation in the tarmac, I have avoided it ever since.

I hoped that someone would notice this and at some time the highways department or whoever is responsible would do something. I was being naive, wasn't I?

After a year of passing it every day and seeing nothing done, I decided to take some action. I posted a report on Fix My Street, which was duly sent to the relevant bodies but it has had no response. I have since forwarded it to Sustrans who have alerted their area manager. A few days ago the sign marking the cycle path fell over as the base has rusted through. Perhaps if someone cycles into it and breaks their neck there will be an investigation.

I wondered though, why on earth is this cycle path here anyway? It is evidently not of any useful length and so qualifies as one of the ironically called 'facilities of the month'. It's quite apparently not really a cycle path at all but just a footpath hurriedly designated as a cycle path.

Was creating a 300 metre cycle path some sort of boondoggle, so the SCC can then proudly claim to have instigated cycle paths for their 'green' credentials, which are so important for securing further central govt. funding now?

I am all for local govt. providing such facilities for cyclists but it strikes me as absurd that after spending the money to install this cycle path, nothing is spent or done to maintain it afterwards so that it becomes useless. This is a colossal waste of money. Cycle routes and sustainable transport cannot really be created in a piecemeal fashion nor are they 'set and forget'.

It appears that transport planners are now hoping to use parking charges to fund further sustainable transport initatives. I hope they think carefully about the long term management of whatever they come up with before wasting that funding all over again. The local bus companies might want to take up my suggestion (alongside one for a Blyth Valley cycle path) of putting cycle racks on buses so that buses as well as trains can become part of a chain of sustainable transport modes. According to the CTC (despite the USA's litigation climate) 25% of the United States' bus fleet carries bikes on racks on the front. There is now a service in Wales aimed at the recreational user which has put racks on the back of the buses.

A cycle ride between the art, history and local services of Halesworth and Darsham.

This was written for the benefit of the High Tide Theatre Company



From: The Cut, New Cut, Halesworth, IP19 8BY
To: Haw Wood Farm, Darsham IP17 3QT

Distance: 5.4 miles, 9.18 km
Although the majority of this route is along a main road which HGVs travel between Ipswich and Norwich, the upside is that the road is smooth and wide with gentle climbs and descents. It should take a moderately fit person less than half an hour to travel by bicycle between the site of the High Tide festival at The Cut, Halesworth and the festival's campsite at Darsham.

On leaving the entrance to The Cut, head north (uphill) on New Cut and turn left at the A144/Norwich Rd, going downhill towards the roundabout.

But if your tyres need some air, turn right to Hammonds petrol station instead as this is the only local petrol station with a free air line.

Go straight ahead (second exit) over the roundabout onto Saxons Way. (The third exit Bridge Street leads to The Thoroughfare, a pedestrian shopping area.) A shopfront on Bridge Street belongs to the World Land Trust, an international conservation organisation that takes direct action to save rainforest and other wildlife habitats by buying it. The public library is almost opposite it.

On the roundabout on your left is Hooker House, once the home of the botanist Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker which is now a dental surgery. Behind it the park on your left was given to the town by Lady Rugby, the grandmother of disgraced MP Jonathan Aitken who spent his childhood in Halesworth. This is the site of the annual ‘Gig in the Park’ every August.

The river running through the park was once navigable until embankments built downstream caused it to silt up and there was a busy quayside where grain from the many maltings in Halesworth (of which The Cut was one) was taken by boat to Southwold and from there by ship to London. At one time all of Halesworth's malt went exclusively to the Truman brewery in London's Brick Lane.

The car park on the right has a rank of bottle banks and beside them is Huggy's, a cycle shop and motor mechanic.

At the next roundabout continue on ahead. (The right turn is signed Angel Link and leads to The Thoroughfare and the town Marketplace.)

The road now sweeps in a curve to the right. Lansbury Road on the left is named after the founder of the Labour Party George Lansbury (see Mells). Archaeological evidence suggests the derelict land on the right was occupied in medieval times with lead-working, spinning, weaving and brewing carried out in several tenements. It is now the contested site of a development for a Tesco supermarket.

At the next roundabout take the first left A144/London Rd. On the right is a Co-operative supermarket and a petrol station with a coin-operated pressure washer. Facing the roundabout is the Rifle Hall, originally built in 1792 as a theatre and was used from 1812 - 1844 by the theatre manager David Fisher. He owned an itinerant theatre group which travelled a circuit of theatres in East Anglia (including the Fisher Theatre in Bungay). It would take the company two years to complete the circuit travelling with their costumes, props and sets and publicising their plays as they went. They were highly successful with strong links with the London stage and the acting circle and the Rifle Hall once provided Halesworth what The Cut does today. The Rifle Hall has regretfully been neglected by Waveney District Council ever since they took it over in 1974 and its future looks uncertain.

Continue up the incline, mindful of the T-junction with the B1123 Chediston St causing traffic to stop or pull out in front of cyclists, passing Kerridges car dealership, and after that, turn left (heading south) at the A144/Bramfield Rd (at Highfield Residential Home). The road then sweeps downhill passing Blyth industrial estate. A cottage that once stood at the crossroads for Mells and Walpole was the birthplace of the founder of the Labour Party George Lansbury. His grand-daughter is the actress Angela. The Mells road continues onto Wenhaston and this is a good route if you want a quiet back road to see the Wenhaston Doom. In the distance to the east along the valley you can also see the Holton Windmill.

At the 2 km mark, the road climbs again as you pass the Halesworth Golf Club, crossing over the East Suffolk Railway, until it reaches a plateau. The trees at the right bend in the road have seen two fatal car accidents here in the last two years. A memorable road safety poster said "you see a lot of flowers in the country" and the remnants of wreaths were still there at the time of writing. To give a sense of distance if contemplating a side trip; to the east on the far horizon can be seen the Hinton Lodge water tower and next to it is Blythburgh Church, one of the finest churches in East Anglia.

The road then begins to descend towards the village of Bramfield and with enough initial speed it is possible to coast to the centre of the village.

After the village sign, a short way up the first left turning is K W Clarkes, a quality butchers who produce local ham smoked on the premises as well as stocking locally sourced groceries.

After that turning, the North Manor Equestrian Centre stock the surrounding fields with horses and beyond that, The Bell, a 17th century pub, sells firewood and serves real ale but not food. It is one of the last places in the world where the traditional pub game ‘Ringing the Bull’ can be played.

Further on the Bramfield Garage services and sells secondhand cars and motorcycles. Opposite the garage is the Queens Head, a long established award winning gastro-pub. Even though it is now only 5 kms since you left The Cut, you may want to slake your thirst from passing the half-way mark with a pint of locally brewed Adnams there. Nearby an overgrown dovecote made from a barrel raised on a post is a charming oddity.

At the village crossroads a choice of diversions awaits: The Walpole road to the right passes a crinkle-crankle wall and leads to the fine St Andrews Church.

In the opposite direction; a short way down the Thorington road, a path following the ancient Dunwich road leads to circle of felled elm trees at TM 403 736 which often holds outdoor performances. The landowner is the managing director of a display pyrotechnics company who has evidently done extensive and sensitive natural landscaping.

The Thorington road also leads to Wenhaston and a ride to there and back to Holton and Halesworth via the Mells road is a pleasant circular route.

Continuing out of the village, an ancient defensive earthworks, the ‘Bramfield Castle’, becomes apparent on the left side. The road now divides two separate estates. On the right; the Georgian façade of Bramfield Hall can be glimpsed. This Tudor pile is the weekend home of the chairman of the Royal Opera House.

The road begins to climb again and here the surface has deteriorated in some places. A cast iron milestone is at TM 401 727 and near here a large colony of rooks makes an audible landmark that car drivers would miss.

Then on the right, Brights Farm raises organic meat and is a special area of conservation. From the farm you can access twelve miles of grass walks passing a variety of different habitats including old meadows, ancient woods and ponds. Polocrosse is sometimes played in the fields too.

On reaching a flat plateau again, passing two WWII pillboxes marks the last kilometre. The vista is marred or enlivened depending on your mood by the sight of the A12 road and the whiff of a poultry farm.

At the junction with the A12, to reach Haw Wood Farm turn left towards the Little Chef restaurant and then turn right (signed for Hinton) and continue on, passing the turning for High Lodge golf course and shooting school, to reach Haw Wood Farm.

Otherwise, to continue onto Saxmundham, turn right at the A12 and continue on the cycle path towards the train station and petrol station which will become visible 2 km further south.

Darsham has all the basic essentials for a bicycle visitor including a cycling centre and The Fox Inn is popular for Sunday lunches. A bicycle will ensure all its amenities are convenient as they are scattered over some distance.

Clustered around the train station 2 km further along the A12 from the A144 junction are two cafés, a Jet petrol station with a market, Monkey Drum; a shop selling multicultural musical instruments and fair-trade gifts, a paint and tile shop and a automotive tyre centre.

If you want to return to Halesworth by public transport, your choices are the train from Darsham which takes under ten minutes but only runs every two hours or the hourly 521 Anglian Bus which stops outside the station and The Fox Inn on which so far folding bikes have been tolerated.

Local Bike Shops

Halesworth

Coopers (an ironmongers selling tools but no bike spares)
53-54 The Thoroughfare
01986 872 110

Huggy's Bike Shop
Unit 5
18 The Thoroughfare
Tel: 01986 873932

Darsham

Byways Bicycle
Priory Farm
Tel: 01728 668764

Mountain Bike Hire for Snape and Rendlesham forests (delivery and collection to your door with 24 hours notice).

Avocet Sports

07706 479965

http://www.eastcoastmountainbiking.co.uk/

Another map link: http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/gb/halesworth/959027424273

Services in Halesworth

Besides The Cut, services in Halesworth cluster around the Thoroughfare and The Marketplace, both a short walk from the New Cut. Halesworth has a wide range of shops including specialist butchers, a fishmonger, a delicatessen, a organic shop, several greengrocers, a toyshop, several giftshops, an ironmongers, several cafes, a picture framer, a teddy bear emporium, several banks and building societies, a travel agent, a sports shop, a Spar, two newsagents, three hairdressers, a gun shop, a wine merchant, a copy shop, a stationers, chemists and several takeaways. There is also a Co-operative supermarket and several petrol stations and car dealerships locally.

For bike related items there is Huggy's and Anglia Sports has some clothing and Coopers is hardware shop with good tool department but it doesn’t stock bike bits.

Barclays and Lloyds cashpoints are in the marketplace (beyond the Thoroughfare, opposite the Angel Hotel) and HSBC has one at the north end of The Thoroughfare opposite Focus Organics.

PART TWO TO COME: DARSHAM to SNAPE via SAXMUNDHAM

Walking, Cycling and Greening of the Arts

One of the traditions of the long running Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts are the walks in the middle of the first and second week.

Benjamin Britten and his chums thought the festival audience should have the opportunity in the schedule to be rejuvenated in the landscape that provided his inspiration.

The 62nd Aldeburgh Festival 12-28 June 2009 will hold a walk along the River Orwell on 17 June and one in Bonny Wood near Needham Market on 25 June. Coach departures are from the Moot Hall, Aldeburgh at 9.30 AM. Subscribers can book now with theAldeburgh Music box office 01728 687110 and tickets will go on sale to the general public in March.

As the impact on of climate change from carbon emissions becomes ever more apparent, especially in the coastal areas of Suffolk, it becomes everyone's duty to reduce their environmental impact. It is obviously in Aldeburgh Music's interest to consider their environmental impact in order to protect the landscape that makes Aldeburgh such a special place to have a music festival. A component in the huge carbon footprint of music festivals and similar events is the travelling required, not just in bringing international artists and orchestras to perform, but that of the audiences travelling to hear them.

Although their transport is the audience's choice more than the producers, arts organisations must consider how their audiences travel and they must enable the use of more sustainable alternatives.

Transport options are very limited in rural places such as the Snape Maltings (the home of Aldeburgh Music) but the possibilities of travelling there from Ipswich or London by a combination of bicycle and train (with the cooperation of National Express) is in my experience quite feasible. The concert hall at Snape is 25 minutes (for this middle aged cyclist) from Saxmundham railway station and the last departure to Ipswich and London on Monday through Saturday is approximately 22.20 (and even later northbound); usually allowing enough time at an evening concert to hear the encore before pedalling back to catch the train.

Which is why I have proposed that Aldeburgh Music builds on the tradition of festival walks and hold a festival cycle ride or consider offering free admission to a concert to people who arrive on bicycles; a Bicycle Prom if you will.

It's not an entirely original idea nor that unusual for Aldeburgh Music. Over five days in 2003 the chairman Lord Stevenson and chief executive Jonathan Reekie cycled from Lands End to Lowestoft to raise money for the new 'creative campus' opening in May 2009.

In Suffolk the natural surroundings (a paucity of hills), the quiet traffic-free lanes and the infrastructure around Snape Maltings, with cafes, bars and accomodation and pubs and restaurants along the way could make a Bicycle Prom a very attractive proposition. New Cut Arts Centre in Halesworth is mere yards from Halesworth station on the same line as Saxmundham, this venue also should consider offering incentives to cyclists. Suffolk has many signed cycle routes and several firms already offer holidays for cyclists. If anyone ever takes up my suggestion for a cycle path along the old Southwold Railway line, this could make Suffolk a leader in green cultural tourism.

Some arts organisations have gone much furtheralready, even developing human powered lighting and amplification by 'human dynamo' is a regular feature of the Suffolk Greenpeace Fair.

In London on March 8th there will be an event Cycle East, where the audience can spend the afternoon visiting three venues and seeing three performances for only £10 if transport between each venue is by bicycle.

There is also talk of a cycle path from London to Paris, running along the old Dieppe to Paris railway line opening in time for the 2012 Olympiad. Can't wait to do it.

If you like the idea of this proposal (or don't), please comment.

Look what they done to my town Ma...

I am beginning to feel despair that my home town of Halesworth, and the county of Suffolk in general, has taken a turn for the worse. Until recently I was very positive about its potential. Things like The New Cut arts centre opening and the Latitude Festival and even the Prime Minister's holiday were seen by me as signs of an improvement in the quality of life locally and that the prospects for my children were getting brighter. Even though reports state that extreme rural poverty exists in north east Suffolk, evidence abounded that Halesworth's charms were being discovered by others attracting investment. I even cheered the thought that Waitrose would be coming to nearby Saxmundham since John Lewis has bought the Somerfield store there.

Now, after too many assaults on my sensibilities, with several issues needing urgent opposition all at once and competing with each other for public protest and vigilance, I am despondent that elected officials of every stripe appear to be letting me down. Waveney is an under performing council and I fear if this all comes to pass, Halesworth could soon become a prime contender for The Idler's 'Crap Towns'.

Not in any particular order:

Plans for 340,000 chickens to be intensively farmed at Thorington have been approved. Nobody can tell me these birds won't stink. My own chickens stink. Chicken farms account for 17% of environmental complaints resulting from agriculture. I regularly travel past several poultry farms and they all stink, even from miles away. The smell will probably reach me when the wind is from that direction. Then there's the threat to surface and ground water from chicken manure and litter. Of course precautions will be taken and systems put in place to manage and treat the effluent, blah de bloody blah, but, as we have seen many times, inspection and certification systems can fail. These risks can be managed by complex and expensive methods but not totally eradicated. With millions of Bernard Matthews birds nearby (see below) we only increase the chances of this area becoming a avian flu factory. I know indirectly the people behind this plan and although they are what you would call "good people"; the court proceedings from the very small proportion who have been prosecuted for agricultural pollution (rather more indicating lax enforcement than fewer perpetrators) shows that waste management compliance decreases as cost pressures increase.

The closure of Middle Schools. This is a complete upheaval of my children's education. The best teachers are already leaving the affected schools and the County Council is rather tight lipped about the fate of the Halesworth Middle School playing field. This concerns the town council but they are powerless on education matters. It's obvious to a blind bat that this open space will be sold off to a developer to pay for this wicked plan. The only acceptable use of that open space is one the County Council can't raise money with. It's idiotic to increase the hundreds of children travelling every day to Bungay High when there are more children in Halesworth than Bungay. If Suffolk wants to be green about transport, surely the smaller population of Bungay children should be coming to Halesworth.

Besides, I don't recall any parents ever complaining about the three-tier system either. Throughout the whole process the council have promised consultations yet those consultations haven't made a jot of difference. Those in the know that I know tell me it's a foregone conclusion. It has to be by now if its going to be implemented according to the promised schedule. Parents are fatigued enough and although there have been protests, this kind of protester is easy to divide and conquer and dis-courage. But fight on we will! If the credit crunch thwarts this it will be a blessing in disguise.

Bernard Matthews' Wind Farm. I am all for wind power but 400 foot high wind turbines to power turkey sheds brings no benefit to the community. It's not power for the people but to warm a lot of intensively reared meat that I don't want to buy or eat. Bernie's PR machine is using green arguments to ensure he can continue with a totally unsustainable practise. I find it galling he brands his turkey fillets 'Big Green Tick'. There's nothing green about them unless you keep them past their sell by date.

As for the ongoing effluent problems and smells from intensive poultry farming and processing and the risks of another bird flu outbreak see above. Around here, lazy children get told that if they don't apply themselves to their lessons they'll end up at Bernies. People in Halesworth are very leery of openly criticizing Bernard Matthews as local jobs used to depend on him (and with a net worth somewhere around £300M his lawyer can beat up your lawyer) but if he shut up shop in Holton tomorrow, I doubt anyone would really care except Lowestoft's buy-to-let landlords, the pound shops and the Portuguese workers bussed in every day who now make up 30% of his 6000 person workforce. I'll miss their coffee shops and pasteis de nata but that's a small price I'll pay.

There have been long running complaints to the Holton Parish Council about smells from Bernies but I gather that if you complain to Environmental Health, you have to declare that or it becomes public record when you sell your house which has made sure a lot of people remain silent. Bernie can buy friends in one parish by letting a museum use a building and the only opposing voice in another parish was a councillor who believes a nuclear power station at Holton over a wind farm is a rational alternative!

Bernie recently ran an ad campaign claiming his staff were proud all his turkeys were 100% British born and bred, unlike his staff of course.I'll spare discourse on what that actually means in product marketing terms, not a lot really, and so what does he grow at his Hungarian and Brazilian farms then? His website has revolving banner ads of his employees saying "I'm proud to work at Bernard Matthews". None of the workers making that claim were named Joao or Costanca though and there were also many testimonials by African-Americans during the civil rights era that they were perfectly happy with Jim Crow too. Bernie's PR campaigns are style without substance and designed to diffuse, deflect and obfuscate.

My opposition is nothing personal or directed at Bernard Matthews in particular, it's just that intensive meat production and processing is not the way forward. Why don't they grow some tomatoes there instead and put them on trains instead of trucks, like when London's food markets were supplied by the East Suffolk line with fish from Lowestoft docks and milk from Halesworth dairy.

Nuclear Power: First there was Sizewell A, then B, now plans are afoot for C. Then D and....? Do we really have to sell out future generations for tens of thousands of years for the sake of five hundred jobs? I reluctantly agree there is some role for nuclear power but we must do everything we can to improve efficiency and exhaust every alternative first. And, if it's so safe as 'they' claim, nuclear power stations should be in the middle of cities so the population that depends on them lives with the consequences in a fair proportion of use and responsibility.

The flooding of Blythburgh. There's a lot of bad karma in the river and sea defences arising from the actions taken during their building centuries ago by selfish landowners - detailed in Rachel Lawrence's 'Southwold River' - which have been maintained by the public purse until recently. But there is very important infrastructure there now and letting the sea flood the marshland around Walberswick and Dunwich will also have a devastating impact further inland. Now we are being promised improvements to the A12 to prevent the flooding closing it but this money will probably come at the expense of something else. Several villages desperately need bypasses and there should be more cycle routes.

The Tesco Battle. If not Tesco, then ASDA or something worse like Budgens or Lidl will eventually arrive in Halesworth. Despite a recent makeover, the Co-operative store still needs to up its game. Its failure creates the demand its rivals are keen to fulfil. Locals want an alternative which is why I support the idea of a Waitrose nearby. At the top of my ethical supermarket scale (I realise it is an oxymoron) is the Co-operative Society, then John Lewis. Running in the middle of the pack is Sainsburys. At the bottom sits Tesco and ASDA aka Wal-Mart whose low prices come at high costs.

The Beccles Loop: Enabling more than one train every two hours in each direction between Saxmundham and Lowestoft. We had a dual track railway line until 1984 but to save money one track was torn up. Now it will take over £12M to reinstate just one mile at Beccles so trains can pass and double the line's capacity. It's long promised but I'll give four to one we soon hear it's a victim of the credit crunch.

Anyone with news of any positive signs is welcome to post here. I am looking for them, believe me.

In for a penny....

Last Wednesday Mrs Bocking and I flew with our two children to Germany for the day.

When the flight screenscraper at MoneySavingExpert.com told me in June that Ryanair was having a reverse price sale; I found could fly to Niederrhein Airport (the former RAF Larrbruch) located at Weeze in Northern Germany for one penny each way. Yes, that is including all the taxes so long as I paid with an Electron card. Debit cards incurred a charge of £1.20 per flight.

Being a cheapskate dad, I thought what the heck? It could be a fun father and son outing for a boy who is obsessed with filming trains. Despite that everyone has a Ryanair horror story and the risks you take with Ryanair's terms and conditions, a flight anywhere for a penny has to be worth it just for the ride, even if we just land, do a bit of train-spotting and get the next flight home.

Ryanair advertises the route as Düsseldorf (Weeze) but Düsseldorf is over 60 km away and within Germany Ryanair is not allowed to advertise without a big disclaimer saying so but then, Ryanair has always had a bit of blarney in its advertising.

You have to be quick when these deals come up. They're often only available for 24 hours. There's no time to umm and ahh and research the possibilities if you don't know the area well. You book and then decide what you're going to do.

There was a 07.15 flight out in the morning from Stansted and a 20.35 (19.35 GMT) flight back in the evening. With a 50 minute flight time and a low volume of passengers at Weeze it could allow enough time for a family day out in any of the surrounding towns and villages along the Dutch/German border. We could treat this as a reconnaissance mission and if we liked it, we could perhaps make a second trip when another deal came up.

A few minutes on Google showed there was likely plenty to do and see around Weeze but very little of this information was in English. So I boldly booked the whole Bocking family. After all, if we didn't take the flights, I would only lose my tuppeny investment. It made me wonder though, if something went wrong, what would Ryanair do? Refund my money?

A breakthrough on my internet research conducted via Google's translation tools was finding that the Irrland amusement park was only 7 km away from the airport. This looked from the many flickr photos and Youtube videos posted of toddlers by doting papas like a not very sophisticated but potentially interesting playground with many climbing, sliding and water features dotted around a huge field of corn planted in a labyrinth or 'maize-maze'.

An e-mail to the park got a quick and friendly response that the airport shuttle bus service passed their front door. On that basis the rest of the Bocking family became committed to exploring the unknown and reporting it back to you. So, in penance for those greenhouse gases, here is what we found:

I think it would be rather boring to report all the trials and tribulations of parking at the airport, our boarding cards not working and the darting back and forth to the check-in to sort it out and all the various service failures of Stansted Airport and the hassles that the present security measures cause.

When landing at Weeze you could think, if you are familiar with East Anglia, that you had been tricked and arrived at Bentwaters Airbase instead, like those hapless participants in the TV hoax 'Space Cadets'. The single runway airport is surrounded by abandoned concrete aircraft hangers and nuclear bomb stores nestled amongst the Scots pines. There is no fancy air-bridge; the plane pulls up to the new terminal and you walk down the steps and across the apron to the arrivals hall. It is however a brand new terminal with all the usual car hire counters and a cafe with friendly staff, as we found out later.

We got outside the terminal at 26 minutes past the hour and it being Germany (as my German friends had warned) the hourly shuttle bus had left on time at 25 minutes past. I thought this was a bit odd as our aircraft had been the only one on the apron but I can see the knock-on effect of their schedule so instead of waiting we took a taxi to Irrland which was only 12 euros.

I'm not sure how you pronounce the name properly in German, various intonations of ERR-LAND and IRELAND got blank stares but when I said "park für kinder" the driver understood. He nodded enthusiastically as if to say our kids were in for a treat. The taxi passed the abandoned base facilities and a tiny museum and the dilapidated 'Astra' cinema. For me these would be worth a look if I had an hour to kill and didn't have two young children in tow.

Irrland has two parts, Nord and Süd, which are connected by an underpass to cross the road that separates them. You arrive at the Süd end opposite the Plantaria nursery and aviary which is what the bus stop is called. The entrance cost per person, regardless of age is just under 4 euros and parking is free.


We noticed that everyone ahead of us was paying an extra 3 euros on admission to hire these brilliant little wagons to carry their stuff as they were all arriving loaded with cool boxes and bags of charcoal. It was apparent that people come in large groups planning to stay all day.









In the Süd side is the main maze which has three main features we gave our attention too. The Pirate Ship is not a touch on the one in Kensington Gardens but it has a waterslide beside a giant paddling pool with a gantry in the centre holding eight giant dump tanks that slowly fill and randomly dump water on the kids gathering under them with expectant anxiety.

Here there is a 'kiosk' selling cold drinks and coffee (real cafe-presse, not instant) and chips (fritten) and dispensing sun loungers. Something I immediately sensed about the park is they are not setting out at every turn to take your money. I didn't notice any ranks and ranks of vending machines and grotty gift shops and there are only a few kiosks with a very basic menu

but the food is good and cheap by British standards. One thing apparent about Germany is that they take chips seriously; they are always cooked to order so it requires a few minutes wait but then, a perfectly cooked and fresh real potato frite, with mayonnaise of course, is well worth it. You leave a two euro deposit for a tray and there are bins just about everywhere you turn.

You could just spend the day right there as all around the paddling pool are picnic tables and every alternate one is shaded from what was very welcome but unexpected sunshine.

We soon encountered the infamous complaint about the Germans that they 'bagsy' everything before the British can. We took our wagon (we had quickly realised that carrying our backpacks was going to be tiresome and our stuff would get in the way if left on the ground) and parked it by a picnic table to go explore. When we got back another family had taken the table because we hadn't spread our stuff all over it to claim it. I think this was because we didn't know the rules rather than rudeness on their part or perhaps they thought we were Russians. Of course it's a sweeping generalisation but on the whole, I found nearly everyone we met very civil and I noticed many things that could never happen in England because somebody would steal, abuse or vandalise it or just take advantage.

Two hours after it opened at 9.00 a constant stream of coaches was still disgorging hundreds of people. It appears there are more popular parts of the park than others. You have to get there early to find a table beside the 'Sandmatschberg' (sand hill) because it has the most shade from the trees and something for everyone is in shouting distance but be warned, by lunchtime the smog from the barbecues provided at every table for cooking sausages would put Beijing to shame. The Germans love barbecue. There must be a very sensible approach to Health and Safety legislation in Germany as I cannot envisage barbecues in public in England without six foot railings around them and waivers of liability.

After a happy hour in the Pirateschiff and on the inflatable Kletterpyramid we tried out the Riesengebirge which are three 20m diameter inflatable domes before moving on to look at the Menschen-Waschanlage (human car wash). Here there is a giant pit of mud - thankfully enclosed - where children can emerge like New Guinea mudmen to be sprayed with firehoses by the enthusiastic staff. This must be one of the more fun assignments for the teenagers working at the park although I put any comparison to Alabama civil-rights marches out of my mind.

We then went over to the Nord side where there is a race track with pedal cycles (one euro needed to unlock them like a supermarket trolley so you don't abandon them on the course when bored) and more inflatable areas for the toddlers.

There is more to do on this side so it does get more crowded. The literally standout feature is the 30m gantry of the 'Tyrannosaurus Rex' slide. You collect a carpet mat and climb onto a steel deck built above the wings of an Antonov An-2 to take a terrifying plunge into the unknown. There are other slides from here for the less brave. One tip you should observe is do not go onto the gantry in bare feet. All the paths in the park when we arrived were impeccably groomed sand and you can go shoeless almost everywhere but on the slides, after a few minutes of waiting (and you will wait) the tiny teeth of the steel grating become incredibly painful on bare feet.

Another big feature here is the 70m water slide and when we felt we had too much sun, we went into some huge open-sided barns filled with pool tables and table football and a rope gym and tunnel system made of straw bales offered blissful shade. There is much more than that to do here which is why you should discover it for yourself.

By now it was 13.00 and we'd had enough sun and wanted to see the nearby town so we went to the entrance kiosk to ask when the next bus was and was told it was another forty minutes so I asked if there was a taxi service. I appreciate that the park workers didn't speak English and I don't speak any German but their answer to "dial 2121" was I thought not very helpful as I had no idea of what area code I was in.

We walked outside to the bus stop as I thought maybe we'd catch a taxi dropping someone off. We didn't see any and after about ten minutes in the sun, (there seems to be a lack of bus shelters, I didn't see one anywhere all day) everyone was really thirsty so I walked over to Plantaria as I had read online they had a cafe reputed to serve excellent cakes.

This was the only disappointment in the day. Although the cafe was large and did have a big chiller filled with tasty looking cakes, it was totally deserted and a 300ml bottle of water cost me 2 euros. Maybe it gets busier later in the day but as I felt I was gouged when a 500 ml bottle had cost less in Irrland and 300 ml of Volvic was 45 cents in the local shops, they deserved to be deserted although judging from their car park, plenty of people must have been going there buying plants and looking at the collection of parrots.

The airport shuttle bus came on time and its air-conditioned luxury was by then very welcome. The bus driver told us that the day before it had been pouring down with rain and today was expected to be wet but had turned out fine, so German weather reports are just as reliable as British ones. The fare for all of us to the Bahnhof was under 7 euros. I had also read online that the best currywurst in the region was near the Bahnhof and I had promised my son a chance to film some German trains.

Kevelaer train station is being modernised and the girls went to use the toilets which were clean but covered in very rude and graphic graffiti which amused my pre-teen daughter and embarrassed her mother (it just goes to show it's not a gender thing). The trains run half-hourly between Düsseldorf and Krefeld and one soon arrived and it looked very comfortable, modern and fast. With that promise fulfilled we went off to look around the town.

The currywurst stand I thought was at the Bahnhof might still be there but it wasn't visible so we skipped that idea for lunch as the kids had had their fritten. We soon found ourselves in the main drag of Hauptstrasse where the Ital Eiscafe has a huge range of ice cream flavours. By then I had developed a thirst for my first authentic German pilsner and Mrs Bocking fancied a coffee. Two drinks and two ice creams came to 6 euros although the waitress was an extremely grumpy sort who the very amenable Mrs Bocking somehow got on the wrong side of when ordering and her demeanour hadn't improved when we paid the bill.

Suitably cooled and refreshed by beer and with children busy with ice creams, we sat and watched the world go by as our 03.30 start from England was catching up on us. More than 800,000 pilgrims, mostly from Germany and the Netherlands, visit the shrine to the Virgin Mary in Kevelaer every year and it seems all of them go up and down Hauptstrasse checking out the shops and al-fresco cafes. Most of the shops are the regular 'high street' sort and there are many selling religious souvenirs but all are in good taste. There wasn't much stuff branded as 'Kevelaer' and much to my disappointment, I didn't see anything gloriously kitsch like a six foot neon illuminated Pietà which I would find in the USA. Something I did notice was, like Holland, that over fifty percent of the pedestrians of all ages, including nuns, were pushing bicycles.

We carried on and remembering all the virtual walking I had done on Google Earth, we went down an alley to the museum which had a big display of Playmobil figures outside and beyond them there was a grassy 'pocket' park with a rope climbing frame, some swings and very inviting shade trees and a nature study pond (fenced of course). The adults lay down in the shade for a nap whilst the kids climbed on the ropes but they soon joined us. It was very peaceful. There was a couple of mothers with toddlers so it seemed perfectly safe although I was mindful that one blogger had described his visit to Kevelaer as walking into the kind of place that had inspired 'Deliverance'. The park is overlooked by the back garden of a pizzeria which seemed an inviting place for a summer evening to have cheap meal where kids could go off and amuse themselves but we hadn't come to Germany for pizza.

After a short rest which lasted until the kids got fidgety again we made a plan; as the kids still weren't hungry, we could look around for a place for an evening meal as we carried on strolling around the town. A few streets later we found ourselves in what must be the cheaper part as there was a thrift store (charity shop) so we checked it out. Not exceptional bargains but very good quality stuff that looked tempting but we didn't fancy carrying anything more with us. The Luxemburger Galerie is a mall with pricey shops opposite the thrift store for a nice juxtaposition.

Given that there once was an airbase here, I wondered where the servicemen would have gone for their off-base R&R? There didn't seem to be any dive bars or discos, even closed down ones, and I thought it unusual for a tourist town that I didn't see any buskers or street entertainers.

After wandering aimlessly down some other streets we thought we had pretty much covered downtown and were getting a bit disenchanted with the possibility of an evening meal as by now it was 16.30 and a couple of cafes we went into said they closed at 17.00 Anywhere that look like it stayed open later was a bit more pricey but we weren't about to panic.

Thanks to the German Watertower Society I knew that Kevelaer had a water tower and suddenly I realised what I could see from the top of the slide at Irrland was now only a few blocks away. To a chorus of disappointment from my long suffering family who don't understand my interest in such things, we set off to visit it.

The wasserturm is not normally open to visitors but the staff of the town's water, sewerage and bus company, who turned out to have offices inside it became interested when I explained that I was a committee member of the British Water Tower Appreciation Society and after some conversation they understood I had a genuine interest. Kevelaer is twinned with Bury St. Edmunds (and Weeze is twinned with Watton in Norfolk) so perhaps our East Anglian connections swayed them to kindly allow us all in to see the offices and a conference room, all recently refurbished, inside the tower but the tank room for now is off limits.

The plaque on the door says the tower is 54m high, has a capacity of 450 cubic metres and the tank was constructed on the 'Intze' system.

That item checked off, we walked back into town and now Mrs Bocking was getting a bit antsy that we weren't going to find anywhere but she too, like me, didn't fancy dropping a big wedge on somewhere that just didn't feel right for us and the kids and by now our two were getting a bit too fractious

Heading back into town we passed a Müller drug store and rewarded the kids' good behaviour by letting them spend their pocket money on German chocolates (for eating when back at home) with one rule; no brands you can buy in England. For a friend with a collection of over 250 jars we failed to find a peanut butter brand he didn't already have. We asked the checkout lady if she knew of good places to eat and she replied in perfect English that "they're all good" but we could try the Golden Swan or the Ital Eiscafe. We had looked at the Swan and passed as it was expensive and had already been to the Eiscafe...

We thought we were now near the Rathouse which we had seen from the shuttle bus and recalled there was a couple of food stands near there. I said let's go there and have a look and see if one was a currywurst one and if not, there were a couple more restaurants at the furthest end of Hauptstrasse we hadn't been to.

I don't know the proper name of the place but it is where Marketstrasse joins Bahnstrasse and there in a square with a water feature is where we hit upon Roland's Grill-Kuche and next to them was Hacco's Grill, a currywurst stand, and a farmer's stall selling home made strawberry jam and vegetables and all of these were outside a REWE supermarket.

Before I tried my currywurst, we looked at the racks of roasting chicken and ribs and saw the spotlessly clean truck and counters and got into a conversation with the woman who offered us a sample. It was delicious and we were hooked. Two portions of the most tender and perfectly cooked ribs were only 5 euros so we decided to ditch the currywurst plan and buy some cold beers and salad in the supermarket (plus some German sausages and peanut butter) and have a picnic in the square. The kids typically didn't like this idea and so settled on having more fritten from the currywurst stand. The woman serving there was kind enough to bring them out to us as we sat in the square beside the fountain thinking this was a marvellous dinner on a glorious summer evening.

Too soon it was time to end our bucolic repast and walk back to the Bahnhof and get the shuttle bus to the airport. On the way there was an unexpected bonus of a train going through a level crossing and so we could film that event as well. At the Bahnhof was a group of young female German students waiting and we joined them in putting our 'barking dogs' into the fountain whilst we waited for the shuttle bus.

The traffic was getting busy now and a battered Fiat Panda with four teenage boys inside, playing heavy metal at full volume on the tinny bog-standard stereo, kept cruising past, no doubt trying to impress the girls. Apart from the party of Goths on the plane, this was the only sign of an alternative culture I'd seen all day. On the dot of 18.45 the bus turned up as expected; getting us to the airport for under 12 euros at 19.00 which meant we had just over one hour to pass security and passport control before the gate 'closed' at 20.05

Although I knew the hour was more than sufficient to pass through security, it would be Sod's law that if we had taken the shuttle an hour later, some oik from Ryanair would say we had missed the flight. Security was exceptionally thorough and we remembered the bottles of warm water in our backpacks and we gladly dumped them in the bins but when the security guard went through our shopping bags, he seized upon the peanut butter and said it exceeded the 100ml limit and it must be given up.

One tip I'd give for leaving Weeze airport is don't pass through passport control after you have been through security and wait in the UK-bound lounge. The EU (aren't we all?) lounge has more tables and chairs and you can get better service from the cafe. The EU lounge was full of smart looking people waiting for a flight to Treviso whereas the UK lounge was the lumpen proletariat heading for the rain clouds of England. Although the waitress told me our plane was over half and hour late, (how come she knew and no one else did?) the departure board resolutely kept promising a scheduled departure at 20.35 and an expected departure at 20.35 even though by 21.00 there was no sight of our plane. Somebody triggered a panic rush to queue up in front of the exit doors even though there wasn't any Ryanair staff collecting boarding cards and after half an hour of standing in line for no apparent reason, I drifted back to my seat. I would remind anyone who pays extra for early boarding on Ryanair that first-on is last-off and all you get is a head start on a rather unseemly footrace to the plane.

A huge cheer went up when our incoming plane touched down at 21.10 but it was another three quarters of an hour before we could get on board. On arrival at Stansted there was no triumphant fanfare over the tannoy saying yet another Ryanair flight arriving on-time nor any explanations. On the Monday after we got back, Ryanair announced it was going to cancel millions of tickets recently purchased through the screenscrapers.

Postscript:

According to Martin Lewis, you needn't worry if you have found Ryanair deals through his site. All his site does is provide info, you can’t book through it, but sadly a by-product of Ryanair's attempt to block booking-fee websites is to block access to ALL flight comparisons, including the MSE FlightChecker. They are talking to Ryanair's board to sort this out.

Post-postscript:

This story was taken up by the English language online newspaper The Local and is now on their website. The best part? I get paid! Thanks guys.