St. Mary's - GOOD NEWS - and Tesco update

When I last wrote a Moseley update it was good news about Tesco and still no news about St Mary's. This time the position has changed.

The GOOD NEWS is that St. Mary's Moseley has permission to install photovoltaic panels! After nearly three years of planning, preparation and campaigning. SusMo and St. Mary's have been sent a report by Judge Martin Cardinal, Chancellor of the Diocese of Birmingham, detailing his approval of the project, and his reasons for believing this is the right thing to do in the present climate.

St. Mary's and SusMo are now busy seeking a replacement for the match funding to the British Gas Green Streets award, as the previous agreement has expired due to the excessively long period taken to gain permission for the installation.

The Tesco update is BAD NEWS: the "minded to refuse" decision of the Birmingham Planning Committee on February 10th turned into "approve" on March 3rd. There were all sorts of questionable activities both before and after the first meeting - see the articles about the Meteor Ford site on the Moseley Forum website.

SAVE MOSELEY VILLAGE campaigners and our MP, Roger Godsiff, are investigating the possibilities of a challenge to the approval.

Returning to the Good News, St. Mary's will not be the first Birmingham church to generate electricity with a solar roof.

The Balsall Heath Church Centre, which hosted the Energy Retrofit Seminar yesterday - 9th March - has just started to generate electricity with panels of FlexLight Solar Laminates. It is a modern church centre, and the panels are well camouflaged on the roof, so permission was granted without the long and arduous campaign that SusMo experienced.