SOME may remember my Shut That Door! campaign, launched last year in an effort to get shops to save energy and prevent global warming by keeping their doors shut on cold days.
As it was all my own idea it was gratifying to see pages sent to me from The Guardian magazine from earlier this year waging the same campaign.
OK, it was an obvious catch phrase, but they were even using the same Shut That Door! headline.
Less gratifying is the fact that my early success with The Body Shop has come to naught, the backsliders.
As a direct result of my campaign last year The Body Shop, right on and so caring about the planet and all upon it, agreed to my personal approach to them to Shut That Door! in Lynn to set an example to others. They even agreed to use the town store as a testbed for the possibility of shutting their doors all over England.
The point was, and still is, that when the temperature is freezing outside it makes no sense for shops to have doors wide open and heaters going full blast. It's a waste of heat, energy and cannot be good news for the environment, adding to the impact of climate change.
If it's between the hours of 9am and 5.30pm and the lights are on, most customers have sense enough to realise the shops are open and can manage to open a closed door... and shut it behind them.
Last week I noticed that, despite the frosty weather, The Body Shop in Lynn's High Street had both its doors flung wide open.
Shame on them and shame on any other shop doing likewise if they had the heaters running, not least because, and I am grateful to The Guardian for this snippet, it's wasting £300 million a year.
- Speaking of hot air, reader Mary Howard, of Clenchwarton, wants to know if a rumour she heard is true; that the large, black plastic pipes in the area of the work on Lynn's Cut Bridge are to keep the workers warm.
Like me and many others, she has been exasperated by traffic-crippling work taking place on the Cut Bridge AND the southern bypass at the same time.
Colleagues travelling to Lynn from the west have told me that the delays caused by the work have added up to 25 minutes to their daily journey. That's 50 minutes in both directions, five times a week, equals extra travelling time of four hours and 50 minutes a week, plus all the extra fuel that consumes.
"What lunatic booked the work to coincide in this way?" asks Mary.
A county council highways spokesman complained to me that no one gave the workers credit for doing such difficult work (replacing bearings beneath the Cut Bridge) and keeping at least one lane open throughout. We should be grateful for small mercies.
As for the warm air. It's true! Sort of. The workers are painting steel under the bridge and the cold weather plus moisture from the river causes condensation problems. In order that the paint adheres and dries, warm air is being been blown onto the steel. An unintended consequence has been that it's nice and warm for the workers too.
- Finally, a reply from npower, after I joined in the complaints about electricity prices being increased AFTER we had already used the energy at a cheaper agreed rate.
npower informed me that they had retrospectively increased the cost of my electricity, and I wasn't happy. But if you don't like the changes, and tell your supplier within ten working days of being told of the increases that you are changing to another company, the extra charges don't apply. First find a cheaper supplier. Someone say cartel?
