BRITISH BUREAUCRACY FORBIDS "GREEN" TRANSPORT METHOD



It was supposed to launch a revolution in personal transport but has been stopped in its tracks by a strict interpretation of a 170-year-old law. The Government has declared that the Segway Human Transporter - a 3,000 pound self-balancing scooter - cannot be used in any public place. The scooter, which has been described unkindly as a Pogo stick on wheels or a motorised Zimmer frame, arrived with great fanfare in 2001. Dean Kamen, its American inventor, suggested that it would be the solution to all transport woes. Queues of exhaust-belching cars would soon be replaced by squadrons of Segway riders gliding silently along at 12mph.

Mr Kamen said then that it "will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy". The hyperbole provoked a backlash in the media, which largely ridiculed the invention and ignored the technical genius of the gyroscopes and microprocessors that keep it upright. However, after a slow start, sales have picked up in dozens of countries. France, Spain and most US states permit it on pavements; Austria and the Netherlands allow it on cycle paths, and in Italy it can trundle on both. On pavements, the limit in Italy and France is 6kmh (3.7mph).

In Britain the Department for Transport has welcomed the scooter with a double- whammy, invoking the Highway Act of 1835 to ban it from pavements and EU vehicle certification rules to keep it off roads. In a document, Regulations for self-balancing scooters, the department says: "You can only ride an unregistered selfbalancing scooter on land which is private property and with the landowner's permission." It rejects proposals that the Segway should be treated like the faster electric bicycle. It says: "A self-balancing scooter does not meet requirements [for electric bicycles] as it cannot be pedalled." The document also advises Segway users to wear "appropriate safety clothing at all times".

Bae Systems, which developed the Segway gyroscopes at its Plymouth research centre, accused the department of failing to test it properly. Andy Hughes, a spokesman, said that four officials attended a testing session, three of whom refused to ride it. The fourth travelled only 100 yards. "The department seems reluctant to accept new technology and there is a degree of arse-covering in the regulations," he said.

Those regulations have also angered a small but determined group of Segway commuters, who insist that they will continue to ride to work, saying they pose less risk to pedestrians than a clumsy jogger. Isidore Margaronis, 56, the director of a shipping company, has commuted by Segway for the past three years from Notting Hill in West London to his Piccadilly office. He said: "The department is taking a bureaucratic and pernickety attitude. If we have to wear protective clothing to do 12mph then joggers should have to wear motorcycle leathers." His journey takes 20 minutes by Segway or 40 minutes by bus or Tube. "I prefer the Segway because, unlike with a bike, you don't arrive in a lather. I can wear a suit and go straight into a meeting, taking my Segway up in the lift."

Jeremy Greaves, an executive for EADS, the aerospace company, said: "How can Tony Blair trumpet Britain's environmental commitments when the Government tries to stop people using such a clean and sustainable mode of transport? I'm going to carry on using it." Mr Greaves, 38, added that the only requirement for riding a Segway was to be thick-skinned. "Some people sneer but they are probably jealous that I am getting to my destination faster and having fun."

A study by Kaiserslautern university in Germany found that it took a few minutes to grasp the basic skills of Segway riding and three hours to become proficient. A rider simply leans forward to move forward and back to stop. On the original model, steering is controlled by twisting a handlebar grip. On a newer version, riders push the column left or right. The German study found that learners had a slight tendency to topple backwards if they stopped too quickly.

A department spokesman hinted that the regulations might be reviewed, adding: "We are still in contact with the company and keeping up to date with developments."

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BRITAIN STILL BATTLING NATURAL SELECTION



Work to clear a beauty spot of the longest stretch of the most invasive weed in Britain gets underway today when contractors start injecting every single stem with poison. Japanese knotweed has taken over a seven-mile stretch of the Tregeseal river and its tributaries in the Kenidjack Valley in Cornwall. The valley is designated an area of outstanding natural beauty, but has been overwhelmed by the densely growing knotweed, which can reach 12 ft tall. Native plants and animals have been driven away by the knotweed, which has spread so widely across the county that it is estimated to cover a total of 250 hectares.

The warmth of Cornwall makes perfect for a host of invasive plants originally imported from abroad, including the Hottentot fig, New Zealand pigmy weed and Rhododendron ponticum. But it is the knotweed that is regarded as the worst of them all and the National Trust will today begin work on a œ20,000 initiative to return the valley to its natural state.

Japanese knotweed is notoriously difficult to kill. Its roots can go 10 ft beneath the surface and it can regenerate from a missed or dropped segment as small as a drawing pin. Contractors will tackle the Kenidjack Valley invasion near St Just by hacking down the stems and then injecting almost every stump with a herbicide. The herbicide, a specially licensed glysophate, is drawn down to the roots of the plant and kills it, though the process needs to be repeated for up to three years to be fully effective. A small percentage of the plants - the knotweed has spread up to 80 ft on either side of the river - will be sprayed, but most will be injected by hand to avoid poisoning the river. It is illegal to transport Japanese knotweed or to propagate it, so the contractors will stack the cut stems on polythene until they have dried out and then burn them on the site.

Simon Ford of the National Trust, said: "The knotweed in the valley is a major problem. It's a nightmare. We've tried everything we can think of in the past to get rid of it. We've tried pulling it up, we've laid carpets of over it, all to no avail. "The normal method of control is cutting it and coming along with major amounts of herbicide, but that feels like flinging Agent Orange about - there's nothing left. "That's why for environmentallty sensitive areas like Kenidjack Valley we've developed this method of injecting herbicide in each of the hollow stems. It's laborious but seems to work."

Among the plants that have been driven out of the valley where the knotweed has become established are bluebells, thrift, sea campion, kidney vetch, yellow flag and purple loosestrife. Similarly, the knotweed monoculture drives out dippers, grey wagtails and Daubenton bats. Mr Ford added: "When you have cleared away a patch of knotweed you find that pretty well everything else has been destroyed. Nothing can compete with it. It's the most pernitious plant there is."

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Australian taxpayers pay to re-create a swamp

Taxpayer funds will be used to buy back environmental water flows from irrigators to help restore one of Australia's most environmentally significant wetlands. Federal Parliamentary Secretary Malcolm Turnbull yesterday announced the allocation of $13.4 million from the Water Smart Australia scheme to free about 15,000 megalitres of water for the internationally recognised Macquarie Marshes in central NSW. The funding will be matched by the NSW Government, which in July allocated funds to buy back 30,000 megalitres of water for the marshes.

The marshes have become little more than semi-arid bush as water flows have dwindled through the 150,000ha of river red gums and reeds since 2001. They are the victim of competition for land and water from the nearby grazing and cotton industries coupled with drought. As the drought has worsened, the two primary producers have been feuding over who is to blame for the environmental mess. Graziers are accused of over-stocking and siphoning off water for their own use without paying for it, while cotton growers are accused of coveting an over-allocation from the upstream Burrenjong Dam.

Mr Turnbull was joined yesterday by local MP and former National Party leader John Anderson to seek a compromise that will effectively mean taxpayers fund the water flows needed to help the marshes. Mr Turnbull said the scheme would provide a model for the Water Smart program to address other environmental problems around the nation. "Our landscape is designed to cope with significant fluctuations in rainfall, but there is no doubt we are going through a drying and heating period that means we are going to have the problem of coping with less rain. We've got to be careful not to exacerbate it."

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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