[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22121327

UKIP will "establish a bridgehead" in county councils across England and Wales at 2 May's local elections, its leader Nigel Farage has predicted.

The anti-EU party is aiming to capitalise on public concern over immigration, tax rises and wind farms.

It has traditionally done poorly in local elections but has gained more than 30 councillors through Tory defections in recent months.

A record 1,734 candidates are standing, just 22 fewer than the Lib Dems.

And with the UKIP riding high in national opinion polls, Mr Farage has predicted it will win seats in each of the 34 councils where elections are being held.

He has spent the past two weeks travelling in an open-topped bus, addressing packed meetings of supporters.

At the final tour stop, in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, he told supporters in the town centre UKIP was drawing support from across the political spectrum, not just disaffected Tory voters as the media assumed.

The reason for this, he argued is that the "three so-called main parties" were led by "out of touch bunch of college kids" who had "never done a day's work in their lives".

Mr Farage is keen to maintain the momentum generated by his party's best-ever Westminster by-election result, when it came a close second to the Lib Dems in Eastleigh last month.

Mr Farage stressed that UKIP councillors would focus on local issues such as keeping council tax bills down and opposing new wind farms.

If elected, UKIP county councillors would "oppose every single wind farm application".

The party is also committed to cracking down on crime and anti-social behaviour, getting more police officers on to the street and handing more power to local people through referendums.

It has also promised to crack down on councillors' expenses and limit housing developments on green belt land and "unwanted out-of-town supermarkets".

Mr Farage wants to build a powerbase in local government to help win seats at Westminster at the 2015 general election.

Some pundits believe the party is also on course to win next year's European elections, beating the Conservatives into second place.

Any party which opposes new wind farms is worth my consideration .....

Wind farm contracts to increase energy bills for families

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ene...-families.html

Consumers could see bills rise in the coming years after “generous” deals worth £17 billion were agreed with energy firms delivering wind-generated power to homes, a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned.

Under a scheme agreed by Labour leader Ed Miliband during the last Labour government, but implemented by Coalition ministers, the contracts guarantee that the power firms will be paid even if they fail to deliver energy to households.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the PAC, described the contracts as a “licence for the private sector to print money at the expense of hard-pressed consumers”.

The sharp criticism of the Government came in a report on the “elaborate” new system that licences companies to operate assets bringing wind-generated power onshore.

Energy ministers want controversial offshore wind farms to provide up to 15 per cent of the country’s electricity needs by 2020.

That will require around £8 billion of investment in infrastructure such as platforms, cables and substations.

The committee said that long-term licences awarded to energy companies so far “appear heavily skewed towards attracting investors rather than securing a good deal for consumers”.

Under the terms of the contracts the companies are guaranteed an RPI inflation linked income for 20 years regardless of how much the infrastructure is used.

The estimated returns of 10-11 per cent on the initial licences “look extremely generous given the limited risks”, the MPs said.

Ministers stand accused of failing to learn lessons from failed Private Finance Initiatives, with the committee warning that costs from the wind farm schemes will now be passed on to taxpayers.