Smoke and steam continue to spew forth from Colmers Hill today as engineers from Dorset County Council try and find a solution to a growing vent of bubbling mud at the top of the Symondsbury landmark. WDDC spokesperson Helen Edgecumbe said
“The crater is very unstable at the moment and we are asking people to keep clear of the area until a solution is found.” She went on to say “The vent is releasing acrid fumes that have a high sulfer content so we have asked local farmers to remove livestock from the surrounding area, but an evacuation of Chideock and Symondsbury is unlikely unless the wind changes.”
IN HOT WATER
Residents of Symondsbury have been kept awake by the continuous noise of trucks transporting rock armour boulders from new pier at West Bay that are being reallocated to plug the widening fissure that has already claimed some of the landmark trees, although in the long run they may stand to benefit from the geothermal energy being produced with free heating and hot water and without the wind turbines suggested recently by new Company Haverall Fuels who are currently under investigation by the Environment Agency regarding the damage at the Colmers hill site.
In a surprise announcement today Virgin Galactic SpaceTours announced plans for a 3.5km underground maglev track from West Bay to Colmers Hill. With a target date of completion by 2012 in time for the Olympics, Virgin expects the new biofuel driven launch-ramp to utilise the unique profile of Colmers Hill to propel 25 space tourists into geostationary orbit at a cost of £2.5m per launch. Farmers in the Symondsbury area commented that it was brilliant. “”Wouldn’t it be fantastic if Virgin ditched their logo and used the Colmers Hill image instead. Just think, it wouldn’t you like rocket launcher biofuel at the pump. We think Virgin is brilliant and visionary.”” Local Greenpeace campaigners were not so enthusiastic: “”We don’t believe in the Olympics anyway. We estimate that bringing the Olympics to West Dorset could be the straw that breaks the camels back in terms of carbon emissions and could push the entire global ecosystem over the tipping point and into global melt-down. We think we owe it to our children and our children’s children to to stop using cars completely after 2010 anyway, let alone Space Tourism, otherwise there is no chance of reaching the UK’s obligation to reduce carbon emissions to zero to 2050.”” Other local personalities had mixed feelings: “”We don’t like anything new”” said one; and another commented: “”What about the goldfinches and black foxes that live on Colmers Hill””. Children at the school, however, could not wait to have a trip and spent the morning being entertained by Virgin representatives and drawing pictures of space rockets.