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UTILITY WEEK | 9Th - 15Th JanUarY 2015 | 31 Community Disconnector Editor: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen.bennett@fav-house.com; News editor: Jillian ambrose, t: 01342 332061, e: jillian.ambrose@fav-house.com; Associate news editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@fav-house.com; Insights editor: Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@fav-house.com; Research analyst: Vidhu Dutt, t: 01342 332026, e: vidhu.dutt@fav-house.com; Reporter: Lucinda Dann, t: 01342 332083; e: lucinda.dann@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Ed roberts, t: 01342 332067, e: ed.roberts@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, t: 01342 332077, e: sarah.wood@fav-house.com Publisher: amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Subscriptions: UK £577 per year, Overseas £689 per year, t: 020 8955 7045. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Palace road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6aE. Published by: Faversham house Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex rh19 1UZ New Year vacillations We're a so lot, us modern day Brits, and growing soer by the year, if a survey into the nation's New Year resolutions by Ovo Energy is anything to go by. In the good old days we used to make proper resolu- tions, like giving up smoking or taking regular exercise. In Ovo's latest survey, neither of those make the top ten. They've been replaced by the vague 'being more positive' and 'saving more money'. In fact, Ovo claims that seven in ten respondents have done away with old-fashioned resolutions in pursuit of 'decluttering the home' and 'mixing up the rou- tine' by visiting different bars and restaurants. Disconnector thinks things have come to a pretty pass when we're no longer mak- ing even half-hearted attempts to cut back on our alcohol con- sumption, but are resolved only to find a new boozer in which to do it. As for decluttering the home, the great man thinks a more worthy resolution might be to try not to buy so much useless crap in the first place. Sneaking in at number ten in the list of things Brits have resolved to do in 2015 is 'try- ing not to complain as much'. Energy companies in particular will be hoping this is a resolu- tion that sticks – customers certainly seem more prepared to pick up the phone and let loose every time a bill is out by Disconnector a few grand, and a widespread resolution to complain less is tantamount to admitting that we moan too much. Perhaps call centre agents can use this as their opening gambit when people ring up to complain? Swimming home for Christmas… Spare a thought for the seal that turned up 27km from the coast in a field in Newton-le-Willows, north of Warrington. Passers-by called emergency services when they saw the forlorn-looking animal in the middle of a field, clearly, er, out of its depth. Despite it being the day before Christmas Eve, the police and RSPCA dutifully responded and guided the bewildered beast onto a trailer so it could be carted back to the sea. Could it speak, Disconnector has little doubt that the seal's New Year resolutions would include 'not beaching myself in a muddy field again', or possibly 'not mixing up the routine' and sticking to the open seas rather swimming inland up rivers. United Utilities (on whose patch the seal was found) had a different spin on events, of course. Thinking positively, the company declared the seal was able to swim that far up the Mer- sey only because of the millions of pounds spent on cleaning up the river over the past 20 years, including the 29km Mersey Estuary By-Pass pipeline, which collected no fewer than 28 outfalls dumping sewage into the river and transported the waste to Sandon Dock treatment works. "In the past, the seal would have died," chirped a United Utilities spokesman. "The fact it survived is real evidence that the River Mersey is much cleaner." The great man knows what you're all thinking. What about sharks?! Showered with prizes Regular readers of this column will recall the two Bristol students who came up with the idea that a lot of water could be saved if people could be persuaded to urinate while tak- ing a shower. It caused quite a stir in the media, much of it unkind, when it was short- listed in June for Npower's Future Leaders competition. Well, it looks like the last laugh is with Deborah Torr and Christopher Dobson, from the University of East Anglia, the pair who came up with #GoWithTheFlow. Npower has declared them the winners with a "taboo-breaking" and "thought-provoking" project. Their reward, poetically enough, is a trip up the Ama- zon, where few of the inhabit- ants have access to showers and sanitation and pissing where you bathe is pretty much the only option. 3,580 average circulation Jan–Dec 2015 Subscriptions: UK £577 per year, Overseas £689 per year fhcustomerservices@ abacusemedia.com Sarah Merrick @SpeakSarahSpeak FANTASTIC WINDY START to 2015! Wind turbines supplied 17.4% of the UK's power in the first 24h of 2015. Rich Hall @richonlyinname npower sends customer bill for £644m. I'm astonished. Hadn't realised its billing system was capable of sending bills Jeremy Gordon @JeremyWNA Quite eye-opening during #Zaporozhiy rumours to engage w/ people that think nuclear professionals the least trustworthy in the entire world. Peter Mannion 'MP' @PeterMannionMP Just one hundred and twenty two days more of this, folks. If anyone needs me urgently, I'll be locked in the shed. #GE2015 Nathan Massey @nathanjmassey I've got 3 power stations outside by bedroom window. Would much prefer to see wind turbines instead! REA@REAssociation Bad news for #greeneconomy as @Conserva- tives and @labourenergy clash over alleged £4.3bn green spending plans Labour Press Team @labourpress Tories attacking Labour for giving Green In- vestment Bank borrowing powers in the next Parliament, which is Government policy. 3WhitehallPlace @3WhitehallPlace Hinkley Point C update. China is demanding Ed sells Wales to the Central People's Government if it is to invest in the plant StollmeyerAlice @StollmeyerEU Momentum for EU #EnergyUnion: Spain, France, Portugal sign power interconnections agreement Cornwall Energy @spectrumvoice Christopher Chope MP brands offshore wind supporters as "subsidy junkies"; says nuclear is more cost-effective Top Tweets