Barton news

We have a problem that is specific to life in the countryside – ever larger tractors and associated machinery on country lanes.  I appreciate that living in the country brings privileges, especially under Covid-19 lockdown, when we have been able to walk out of our garden and not meet many, if any, people.   However, when we, our dogs, the verges and roadside walls are threatened by high speed tractors and trailers weighing tons, there is a time to speak out.   Our lane was built for traffic that consisted of a horse and cart and many rural roads across the UK are just the same.   The mechanisation revolution in agriculture that started around the Second World War still continues.   With ever fewer people working on farms, the technological answer has been to develop larger and larger and ever more powerful machinery.   The larger the tractor, the less time it takes to work a field.   This brings time efficiency, but at what cost?   More and more stock farmers around us use contracto

Is Covid-19 in North Somerset climbing again? The way the number of daily cases reported on https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ for England was changed on the 2 July to include all the corona virus testing from independent and other testing (so-called Pillar 1 and 2).  The adjustment in the total number of cases indicated initially that the number of new cases continued in North Somerset at roughly one new case every other day for the month from mid-June (data points in yellow and blue).  There was an adjustment to the data on 19 July because of double counting.  Since then the data shown in green has a worrying increase in case numbers, up to 1.2 new cases per day in North Somerset.  There is only a week’s worth of data, so may be the rate will drop back, but as lockdown is now easing, we need to be careful.  Covid-19 has not gone away and could be increasing.   For the record, the data from Bristol indicates a steady increase in case numbers, averaging 1.5 cases a day, a little higher t

The really good news is that the number of daily cases reported on https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ for North Somerset has reduced markedly – see below.  A little over a week into June and the numbers of cases reported from NHS testing (so-called Pillar 1 data) reduced from nearly 7 new cases a day, to one new case every two days.  From the 2 July, the data reported by government was changed to include all the corona virus testing from independent and other testing (so-called Pillar 1 and 2).  The result was to boost the total of cases from 492 to 905, or from 230 cases per 100000 to 423 cases per 100000.   I have been noting the number of cases in Bristol only since 23 May – see the plot below.   These data indicate rather little change in numbers of new cases.   The change to Pillar1 & 2 numbers moved the numbers from 729 to 1276, or from 157 cases per 100000 to 275 per 100000.   The picture in Bristol is that the absolute number of cases is higher than North Somerset, but the n