24 September - The Energy Saving Trust
I had a letter from Kevin Murphy, Head of Public Protection at Bexley council today.
They have apparently seen fit to join up with a quango, The Energy Saving Trust, (EST).
Kevin says I could save £300 a year on my fuel bill. I doubt it as that would
mean a more than 30% reduction. I could either
go on line
to get a report or fill in a form. If you fill in any government form your details
are likely to go on their database and eventually result in an increase in your council
tax. But curiosity drove me to go for an on-line check to see just how intrusive
the EST would be. I put in a postcode I’ve not lived at since early 1987 and it
came up with the right address but that is at far as it got. Internet Explorer
reported an ‘Error on page’ and refused to take me any further.
The form Bexley council sent me contains 36 questions, ten or eleven of them I
suspect they could answer themselves if they really wanted to. I’m not going to
fill it in. My boiler is 23 years old, I only have 4" of loft insulation as
the roof space is fully tongue and groove floored for storage, and if some government
nosey parker went up there he might see my stock of 150 traditional style light bulbs.
My experience is that the new ones give only half the light claimed and don’t last
anything like as long as they should. The Head of Public Protection, what a
grandiose title for a non-job that is, might be better employed protecting us
from quangos and escalating council taxes. It is absolutely crazy for any
homeowner to invite any government official, local, national or quasi, into his home.
They are already spying on us from the air to find excuses to tax us more. Don’t
make it any easier for them.
Energy saving at Bexley council