A WASTE OF TAX-PAYERS' MONEY

So the ConDem coalition government wants to give more power to Parish Councils, does it?

Residents of the six Parish Councils which were tricked into joining a phoney Windfarm Working Party set up to serve the nimbies of Church Lench might want to know why £900 of their precept money was wasted on a noise measurement survey that achieved ... nothing.

In a rare display of candour, the hyper-secretive Working Party has finally admitted that the noise survey, carried out by an obscure group in Church Lench and partly funded by the Windfarm Working Party, revealed only that the Environmental Statement submitted by ScottishPower Renewables as part of the Lenchwick Windfarm planning application was telling the truth.

The survey was initiated in the vain hope that the local nookies would arrive at background noise levels which differed from those measured by consultants working to the windfarm developer.

Fail. Big fail. Epic fail.

So - the good news is that we now have confirmation that SPR's figures are accurate and the rampaging nimbies can't argue about them.

But all that money, all that Parish Council precept money, which should have gone on local maintenance and facilities was foolishly siphoned off into a misguided exercise which misfired. Neither the nookies of VVASP, nor their friends and helpers in the Windfarm Working Party, nor the Parish Councils, nor the people of the area have anything to show for it.

D'oh!!!