CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT WHAT, EXACTLY?

Yesterday's analysis of the local surveys conducted by three parish councils in the area immediately affected by the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm revealed something very interesting.

To recap: according to the squawkers of VVASP, the majority of local residents support their blinkered, propagandist, hysterical campaign against the turbines.

In reality, the true figures for local opposition were:

Church Lench - 57%

Norton & Lenchwick - 44%

Harvington - 31%

Hardly a majority, is it?

But these figures do help to explain certain things. For example, residents in Norton and Harvington haven't exactly rushed out to plaster those hideous anti-windfarm placards over anything that doesn't move. In some of the Lenches villages, though, those bloody awful placards are everywhere. The protesters have even happily put them on land and property that doesn't belong to them (perhaps they really do believe that EVERYTHING belongs to them). One Lenches resident was even ordered by the district council not to be such a knob with his floodlit rooftop banner.

The atmosphere in the villages differs mightily. Life in Norton and Harvington continues much as normal. In certain Lenches villages, a siege mentality has taken over.

So what's the difference between these neighbouring parishes?

Is it that residents of Norton and Harvington care less about wildlife and the countryside than the people up on the hill? Unlikely.

More likely that, in Norton and Harvington it is widely appreciated that the countryside is a working environment. Certain people in the Lenches (say, between one half and two-thirds of the parishioners) don't want the countryside to be a working environment. They want it to be a picture postcard which never changes, a fantasy landscape which only the wealthy can buy into.

It is a telling fact that, when ScottishPower Renewables invited interested locals to visit a working windfarm, only one person from the Lenches took up their offer. Everyone else came from Norton and Harvington. And yes, they'd been concerned about the windfarm - until they saw one, and heard one, for themselves.

Evidently, something's different up the hill in the Lenches. Is it something to do with property, with privilege, or with people who are simply accustomed to getting their own way, regardless of who or what suffers in the process?

Why is it that trouble only flared at a Norton and Lenchwick parish council meeting when a gang of protesters descended from the Lenches to disrupt the meeting? Could it be that arrogance, intolerance and raging self-interest have become endemic in parts of the Lenches, while the surrounding villages have clung on to their basic humanity?

These questions are valid, not only in trying to understand why certain Lenches people have got such a weed up their ass over these turbines, but in addressing a rather upsetting development.

The Worcestershire branch of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) has thrown its weight behind the VVASP's protest.

Now, broadly speaking, I'm in favour of protecting rural England. But this protest has got nothing whatever to do with preserving the countryside or conserving wildlife. VVASP's campaign is run by a bunch of nimbies who think that 'their' views might be affected by the turbines.

The parishioners of Norton and Harvington share the countryside with the Lenches lemmings, but only in the Lenches do certain people seem to believe that it belongs to them.

These people have bought or built themselves houses in a quaint rural location and are now up in arms because their deluded ideas of what the countryside actually is are being threatened.

And because of that, they are willing to lie to their neighbours, harass landowners, abuse parish councillors, threaten anyone who holds a different opinion, clutter the landscape with their ghastly posters (even in places which are not theirs) and act like a bunch of spoilt children throwing a tantrum.

Is this what CPRE exists to protect? Is this why Bill Bryson became president of CPRE? So that a few middle-class nimbies can absolve themselves from the climate change and imminent energy crises?

No doubt VVASP sold CPRE Worcestershire the same bogus information they've been spreading around the place like manure. Their campaign has really got nothing to do with misleading claims about noise or nonexistent threats to wildlife. It's about whether or not they might be able to see something that, quite frankly, they'd rather not see. That's all.

Remember: theirs is a minority view. And if you feel that CPRE Worcestershire are making fools of themselves by backing VVASP's disreputable and disingenuous campaign, do feel free to contact Frank Hill and let him know what you think.

The countryside belongs to us all - and not just to a few escapees from the cities whose heads are firmly stuck up their backsides.