Despite the fact that we have corresponded with DECC and supplied them with consultation responses previously, we were sent the following information by a Stop Smart Meters! UK member just a few hours ago.
A House of Commons Select Committee is sensing growing opposition to Smart Meters and is seeking ideas for how to combat it. In its online request for assistance, it admits that Smart Meter success will eventually be driven by “automated controls” and people replacing their current appliances with “smart” versions to “reduce their energy use further”. In parallel, energy suppliers can expect to “benefit from reduced operating and generation costs”.
Some consumers have smart meters already, but most people will not get them until the mass roll-out programme between 2014 and 2019. Evidence from our recent Consumer Engagement inquiry suggests that currently about half of people have heard of smart meters and that not all of them support roll-out. If engagement levels do not increase and people refuse to allow smart meters to be installed in their home, then roll-out may be hindered and consumers may not benefit from the technology as they could. Consumer concerns have hampered roll-out in other countries, and in this inquiry we seek to learn how such concerns could be addressed in order to prevent similar problems in the UK.
(Bold emphasis added by us.)
More than half a million Smart Meters have already been installed, yet the Committee is only now seeking answers to these questions:
- Are the Government’s cost and timescale predictions for roll-out realistic and will it deliver value for money?
- What are the potential benefits of smart meters for consumers, and what barriers need to be overcome in order for consumers to realise them?
- Is there a possibility that suppliers will gain considerably more than consumers from smart meters? Is enough being done to ensure that any financial benefits accruing to suppliers will be passed on to consumers?
- What lessons can be learned from successful smart meter implementation and usage elsewhere in the world?
- Will smart meters empower customers to take greater control of their energy consumption?
- Will consumers on pre-pay meters obtain the same benefits from smart meters as other consumers?
- Should vulnerable customers and the fuel-poor be first in line for smart meters so they can get the benefits sooner?
- What is the best way of involving third-party trusted messengers, such as charities, consumer groups, community organisations, local authorities and housing associations in roll-out?
- What are the potential obstacles to rolling out smart meters in the UK and how should these be addressed? What pitfalls have hindered roll-out programmes elsewhere and are we doing all we can to avoid them?
- Are levels of public awareness of and support for smart meter roll-out increasing?
- Is enough being done to increase consumer awareness about smart meters? Could DECC’s consumer engagement strategy be improved?
- Are consumers’ concerns about privacy and health being addressed adequately?
- Is there any evidence that consumers’ concerns about smart meters are declining or growing?
- Will the commercial benefits of smart meter roll-out be captured within the UK?
- Will DECC’s current approach to roll-out, including on procurement and establishment of the central Data and Communications Company, deliver an optimal data and communications strategy?
- What criteria should DECC use to measure the ongoing success of roll-out?
Call us old-fashioned, but if we were going to spend £11.5 billion+ of your taxes, we would have asked all the necessary questions well in advance of deciding to do so and gained satisfactory answers – especially to the ones we’ve emphasised above. Is it any wonder these enormously expensive projects end up costing far more than anticipated, resulting only in benefits for vested financial interests rather than citizens?
The deadline for the submission of written evidence is tomorrow, Thursday 07 February 2013. Details on how you can have you say are here http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/energy-and-climate-change-committee/inquiries/parliament-2010/smart-meter-roll-out/
Incidentally, who do you think these “third party trusted messengers” are? Answers on a postcard…
I would like them to answer the questions:-
1. where is the evidence that shows smart meters are safe, and have no effects on living tissue?
2. Have they read and understood the Bioinitiative report 2007,
and the revised report 2012 ?
Smart meters are evil, people in USA and Australia are getting sick, some people have had to leave there houses because of them, why do we have to go along the same route, what is wrong with the old wired meters, at least they are safe, What about wild life and pets, bees and birds are disappearing because of this type of radiation, watch ( resonance beings of frequency ) on computer as its not been released by the media for television. I have watched it twice and my friends and family have seen it, are now changing ways of thought and trying to protect themselves and there families and pets. We all need to change to make a difference to everything. With smart meters life will become extnct even the cabal. They know the dangers that is why cell phone makers won’t have mobiles near them or even in procimity of there offices. Its all in the name of MONEY
When the government tells me something is beneficial for me I get suspicious,some bright spark somewhere has come up with the smart meters idea.
Someone somewhere is going to make a lot of money in the manufacturing,distribution and installing of the meters and they won’t make it off my back.
I have read that the disgraced MP Chris Huhne,now a renowned liar and supporter of wind power has business interests in “windmills” and how many more people in Authority and power within the government have a vested interest in smart meters.
I’ve submitted what I could given the rush… how come we didn’t know about this til the last minute?
Evidence from our recent Consumer Engagement inquiry suggests that currently about half of people have heard of smart meters and that not all of them support roll-out.
So how many don’t support the roll-out?
If engagement levels do not increase and people refuse to allow smart meters to be installed in their home, then roll-out may be hindered and consumers may not benefit from the technology as they could.
There is an assumption here that people will benefit. By the same token there will be disdvantages
Consumer concerns have hampered roll-out in other countries, and in this inquiry we seek to learn how such concerns could be addressed in order to prevent similar problems in the UK.
So whether this is good for us or not, this bozo has decided that we need to steamroller it.
Wake up people !!! Though to be fair anyone reading this website doesn’t need telling.
I object on the grounds of health and safety effects for people who suffer from electrical hypersensitivity. It is dangerous and the health affects of using this technology is frightening as no one knows the long term health effects of the use if microwaves. I know people who will be left homeless if smart meters are implemented. Its wrong and unfair and they should not be used if they are going to affect peoples health. As you have no proof they are safe they should be banned.
MPs as a group consider themselves as an elite. They are probably envious of the EU Commissioners who operate behind closed doors and who are protected by a lifetime’s exclusion from having to answer in court for anything they do. MPs are simply doing what they like regardless of voters wishes. Integrity is thin on the ground. Vested interests prevent any individuals efforts to stop the juggernaut. Only when the level of health problems reach epedemic proportions will something happen to give power back to the masses, or will it? Codex Alimentarius makes interesting reading. If the Nazi plan to dominate the world is still active &/or the deliberate release of a virus with no antidote a possibility, a major change is likely to be messy.
Like Hilary above, I have watched ‘Resonance – Beings of Frequency’ (thrice now) and have been urging everyone I know to watch it. It’s a shame that such a powerful and informative documentary is not in wide release, and even more of a pity it can’t be made mandatory viewing for everyone on the planet.
I grew up in England and now live in British Columbia, Canada. Unlike UK citizens who presently have a choice about smart meters, we were given non here in Canada. The entire country has been forcibly rolled over to smart meters. I live in a block of flats and smart meters came to my building in August 2012. Having been a healthy person all my life, I haven’t felt myself since these evil devices were installed. I now have trouble using electrical devices and can’t use my computer for long. For those of you who have a choice about smart meters — please, please, please say ‘NO!’ to them.
Some homeowners here have refused the smart meter and are continuing to fight attempts at installation. As far as I’m concerned they’re the heroes, fighting this heinous technology. Microwave radiation harms us all, some of us obviously, and some of us sooner rather than later, but ultimately all living things will pay the price for the unnatural way we’re living.
As others here have said, each of us can make a difference by how we choose to live. To quote someone: ‘That’s how the world changes — one person at a time.’
I have some emf sensitivity and it fatigues me. I do not want this invasion in my apt. Home.
Smart metres are PROVEN to adversely affect the health of many.
SO GET SMART you people who make the rules and rule them OUT>
There is strong evidence from other countries that smart meters are causimg illness.
The installations should be halted until there is full clinical trials to show that they do not have any ill effect on anything living.
We are extremeley concerned at the lack of research to show that the effect of this sort of continuous – pulse radio frequencies used in Smart Meters is safe.
Unlike mobile mobile phones the transmission is a continuous beam and is absorbed by the whole body
The smart meters, which will cost many billions of pounds to install and will be paid for by the general public, do not give any benefit to the consumer, such as reduced fuel costs.
Four years of suffering the severe effects of exposure to my mobile phone radiation – multiple allergies and sensitities which affect my health, sleep and life – I hear about this issue today on the day of the deadline for submissions.
I cancelled my internet and mobile phone a few months ago to reduce exposure in my home – and am using the library internet to write this message. As the actions are limited on this internet – my signature is not going through.
I am making this message a written submission that I refuse to have a smart meter fitted in my home.
Planning to move soon though as the technology from the aeroplanes at the nearby Heathrow airport are affecting me badly.
Let us all stop this implementation of invasive and harmful technology and spread the word.
Everyone, please go to this government site and sign the on-line petition which has a “PATHETIC” 6 signatures only. About 2 years ago, the Government (of private equity houses and friends) was proposing a new motorway tax, but it got shot down by people-action, including the E-petition, signed by tens of thousands of car drivers. Spread the word to friends and family, it will take them 3 minutes of their life to do something for a change instead of whining about how corrupt the people in charge are..
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/42707
To follow up on what Brian O’Donovan has said about ‘doing something for a change instead of whining about how corrupt the people in charge are’ … everyone, please urge those you know to sign the e-petition Brian has provided the link to. Every name makes a difference. I myself have signed a number of smart meter protest e-petitions around the UK, even though I don’t now live there, and have received back a couple of sarcastic replies from utility companies saying since I live in Canada there’s no danger of them forcing a smart meter on me. These replies wilfully chose to miss the point of my signature — which is to support people anywhere who are fighting these dangerous radiating devices. I also received a pathetic reply from Philip Bentley, Managing Director of British Gas, telling me smart meters are safe and a good thing. Sure, sir. You’ve certainly sold me on their safety just because *you* said so.
The link Brian provided takes you to a page that, among other things, says ‘A court in Italy recently ruled that mobile phones do cause brain tumours.’ The increasing scientific evidence that microwave radiation destroys health, and reports of growing numbers of people falling ill as more and more smart meters are installed and more mobile phone masts go up around the world is becoming monotonously mundane.
Two people I know (a girl of twenty-two, and a guy thirty-one) have died from brain tumours in the last few years — both within a fortnight of being diagnosed. There was no hope for either. The guy fell into a coma within hours of being taken to hospital after complaining of an unbearably violent headache. He never regained consciousness and died a few days later. It was heartbreaking attending the funeral of someone so young. The one thing he and the girl had in common was their attachment to their mobile phone. In both deaths, the doctors cited mobile usage as responsible for their cancerous tumours.
Deaths like theirs are just the frightening tip of the iceberg to come thanks to microwave technology. I also know a number of people who have developed apparently mysterious ailments in recent years. If this isn’t down to the microwave pollution choking our air space, I’ll eat every word I’ve ever said about the venality of those whose are pushing this horrible technology on us.
If we don’t let our voices be heard and stop this poisonous gargantuan machinery now, a time will come when the tide cannot be turned back. The very least any of us can do is sign e-petitions wherever and whenever we can.
I suffer from electrosensitivity and have signed the pledge to not have smart meters. There is plenty of information for electro sufferers on their web site electro.com
the government e petition on Smart Meters mentioned by Brian has still only got a ‘pathetic’ 8 signatures one of which is mine! Please circulate!
We appreciate all efforts to raise the alarm about Smart Meters, but the biggest problem we have currently is a chronic lack of general awareness about the issue. Most people haven’t even heard of Smart Meters, which is why we are focusing our efforts on changing that. If we can subsequently bring it into mainstream consciousness then great – but at the moment, you would be hard pressed to find people aware of Smart Meters – let alone prepared to sign a petition calling for them to be banned.