TRYING TO BE DEMOCRATIC

Oooops - this somehow slipped through the net.

The Evesham Journal website has a piece dated Thursday 16 July. This reported on the government's plans for increased energy generation from renewables and wind especially.

At the end of the article, the chair of Church Lench parish council 'denied the council had transferred any funds to the VVASP (Vale Villagers Against Scottish Power) working group set up to fight plans for a wind farm in the Lenches, and insisted the council had "tried to be as democratic as possible".'

I don't think that final paragraph made it into the paper edition of the Journal. Which is a pity - because it begs certain questions.

The 'Windfarm Working Party' was set up by Church Lench Parish Council. This was not Church Lench PC in its 'original' form - those parish councillors were sticklers for following the guidelines as regards planning. So VVASP protesters yelled and screamed at them until the majority of the sticklers resigned, giving supporters of VVASP the chance to take over Church Lench Parish Council.

Some of those parish councillors have since toned down their public opposition to the windfarm, replacing anti-windfarm placards with anti-windfarm stickers, for example, but it's pretty darn obvious where these councillors stand on the issue.

Through their 'Windfarm Working Party', Church Lench PC has solicited funds from neighbouring parish councils in order to carry out vague information gathering and sharing activities. The funds they have requested are to be accounted for retrospectively. But what is clear is that studies have been or are being commissioned by the working party to replicate the work carried out by ScottishPower Renewables' contractors.

In other words, this is not so much information gathering as a rather paranoid kind of copycat work. Church Lench Parish Council is presumably hoping to gather data which does not tally with that produced by ScottishPower Renewables. The only reason for doing so is to provide grounds for objections when the windfarm planning application is submitted.

So - when the chair of Church Lench PC claims that no money has been transferred to VVASP, he's probably telling the truth ... but omitting to add that the money is being used by the parish council to carry out anti-windfarm activity on VVASP's behalf!

'Trying to be democratic' is also an interesting phrase. Does it mean that Church Lench PC is doing its best to be a bit democratic - which is like trying to be a bit pregnant? Democracy is democracy. Okay, a slim majority of residents in Church Lench did express opposition to the windfarm, but by pre-empting the planning application, the parish councillors are failing in their duty to remain studiously impartial until they actually have a planning application to consider.

Let's face it - it's perfectly obvious that Church Lench PC made up its mind about the plans way back, at the same time as the original parish council was forced to resign to make way for people who were steadfastly opposed to the windfarm. The newer members of Church Lench PC have hardly been coy about their opposition, and they have requested money from their neighbouring parish councils in order to try to find grounds to oppose the plans when they finally arrive.

That's democracy, Church Lench-style, for you.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

If the UK is lagging behind Europe in developing renewables, the West Midlands is lagging behind the rest of the UK.

But maybe not for much longer. Local news last night broadcast a piece about proposed windfarms in Staffordshire.

And what do you know? We saw the same old nimby nonsense ... noise ... health ... tra la la ... all the tired old rubbish which gets transmitted from nimby group to nimby group like swine flu.

I bet the Staffordshire protesters are also claiming that windfarms massacre wildlife. Our own dear nookies have made the same weird claims here - even though RSPB have checked out the site of the proposed Lenchwick windfarm and given it the all clear.

Indeed, the RSPB has issued a joint statement, along with CPRE and the National Trust. Together, the three organisations have backed the government's plans to increase the number of windfarms across the country, as well as investing in other renewables.

After all, it's all well and good getting pompously protective towards the countryside, but global warming is a far bigger threat to our green and pleasant land than windfarms could ever be!

All of which makes CPRE Worcestershire's decision to support the VVASP nookies even more bizarre. Their move is at odds with the stance adopted by their national body. At a national level, CPRE have expressed concern at the possibility that nimbyism has set in in Worcestershire because, as they put it, that means we'll be getting nowhere.

The Staffordshire nimbies have adopted the same kneejerk stance as our local nookies. It's just as narrow-minded, just as ill-informed, and just as motivated by selfish interests and a total ignorance of the wider issues.

Perhaps they'll go the same way as VVASP, and plump for the '2km - OK' foolishness. Presumably, by declaring that windfarms are okay, just so long as they're, like, over the hill, VVASP has abandoned any pretence about concerns for wildlife.

See - if a windfarm is fundamentally 'OK', then all their hot air about threats to birds and bats must have been just that: hot air.

Hopefully, the Staffordshire campaigns will wither and crumble just as our local Lenchwick one has. There'll be no end of posturing, hectoring, bare-faced lies and mischievous, irresponsible spreading of dangerously misleading propaganda.

The protesters will make fools of themselves, just as they have done here.

They might even con or bully their local CPRE into supporting their cause.

But the world will move on, leaving them behind, with their naff placards.

I'VE DONE IT AGAIN!

I've had my wrist slapped - quite rightly - by residents of the Lenches who really don't like being tarred with the nimby brush.

And what I'm rather ashamed about is the fact that I know there are many in the area who support the windfarm proposals, or who simply want to distance themselves from the tactics of VVASP. I know that, and I keep finding out - pretty well on a daily basis - just how many people out there are on the side of the angels in this one.

So when I go and insult everybody in the Lenches, that's be just me being careless. And I'm sorry for that.

Because there are plenty there who aren't littering the area with silly signs, or sticking them up where they've no right to put them, or flocking to meetings where they simply bolster each other's daft ideas and unnecessary opposition to a beneficial development. People who don't threaten others for holding different views, and who don't go round spreading scare-stories.

So, to those of you who don't agree with VVASP's views or tactics, I apologise for making it seem that everyone in the Lenches has been caught up in the madness, because it's clear that many have not.

Sorry.

I also understand that the nimbies really resent being called nimbies. I assume that's because they want to convince themselves that they're mounting a principled campaign and not just sounding off.

So, in a mood of contrition, I shall now adopt another word for the protesters of Lench and its environs.

From now on, I shall be calling them Nookies.

These are the 'NO - OK' bunch: the ones who say 'NO' to the windfarm, but then say 'OK' just as long as it's two kilometres away.

A muddled bit of thinking, and far from realistic.

So, NOOKIES it is.

PROPERTY NEWS

Another nimby myth bites the dust: the imminent arrival of a windfarm in our locale does not seem to have deterred househunters one little bit.

Sifting through the reasons why people in the Lenches - and almost exclusively in the Lenches - are so uptight over the windfarm issue, the only one that actually makes any sense (apart from the fact that they just don't want anything around them that they haven't actually built or paid for themselves) is the matter of property values.

Of course, if they really loved the place so much, the property market might not be so important to them. But they can happily rest assured.

In fact, the windfarm might well prove to be a positive boon!

Better still, it could lead to a Much Better Class of People moving into the Lenches.

One family has not been deterred from looking at a property in the Lenches just because there might be a windfarm nearby. What did confuse them, though, was all those ghastly signs that have been erected ... er ... only in a few small villages.

What is more, a couple have been looking at another property in the area, partly BECAUSE there could be a windfarm on the way.

As they were looking round, someone nearby started talking to them, mouthing off about the windfarm, you know, the usual nimby nonsense. The prospective buyer announced that they think windfarms are amazing and they'd be delighted to have one near them.

Miserable old local then mumbled something about, 'Better keep quiet about that round here', and, having done his bit to sell the area, slouched off to find a few nimby friends who might agree with him.

To me, there's a big step in the right direction looming here. It looks like the windfarm might actually attract some decent, level-headed people to move into the villages. This will certainly counteract the kind of boorish loon that has made its residence in the area recently.

The sort who believe that everything belongs to them.

The sort who don't care what lies they tell, and what threats they make, as long as they get their own way.

The sort who've made the Lenches such an ugly, nasty place of late.

So the windfarm may turn out to be a healthy thing, after all, if it brings a few more sensible people into the villages, and - who knows - maybe shuts up some of the arrogant bastards who currently think they own the place.

NOW YOU SEE THEM ...

Can anyone solve the mystery of the disappearing placards?

Friday afternoon, 4pm. Three of the new '2km OK' signs can be seen in Sheriffs Lench.

An hour later, another nine have appeared. Typically, they have been erected on land which does not belong to the protesters. (They've done this a lot. I suspect that, having bought themselves a little pad in the country, they actually believe that everything they can see belongs to them. There's probably a psychological term for this particular delusion.)

Two hours later, those nine new placards have disappeared.

Spooky, eh?

Rumour has it that 'someone' was due to travel through the Lenches, Friday evening - hence the sudden appearance of the additional signs. As usual, the nimbies were misrepresenting the strength of their protest and the popularity of their campaign.

And surely they knew that they had no right to place the placards where they did. But that didn't matter. Just as long as somebody-or-other (send your suggestions as to who this might have been to me, via the email address) saw a long line of placards cluttering up the countryside. Once the job was done, the placards could go back to where they came from.

So - familiar shenanigans from VVASP. But what was it all for? Why sneakily erect nine placards for just an hour or two and then take them away?

Better keep our eyes out for a photo in the paper or accompanying a magazine article drawn from a typically misleading and ridiculous VVASP press release. If we see a shot of rolling fields with a cluster of '2km OK' placards in the way, we'll know that they've been up to their old tricks, conning the press into thinking that the anti-Lenchwick Windfarm campaign has genuine grassroots support.

But they're kidding no one, really. Well, apart from themselves, that is.

AMAIZEING

Thought you might like this.

It's a 91m wind turbine, made of maize, as part of a maze!

Smeaton Farm is near Saltash in Cornwall. Farmer Richard Jones planted the maze on the 450-acre farm he runs with his wife and three children.

The aim, according to the BBC News website, has been to 'raise awareness of climate change and to help visitors understand how they can be more environmentally-friendly.'

Cornwall has a few windfarms. One overlooks the Tamar Lakes, a popular destination for holiday-makers, watersports enthusiasts, fishermen and walkers. The turbines, which stand just a kilometre or so from the lakes, appear to have had no negative effect whatsoever on the number of visitors to the lakes.

To me, the Smeaton Farm maze suggests that we can all stop listening to the nimby nonsense about windfarms being dangerous to health or harming one's quality of life.

They're fast becoming the icons of our times. Those who peddle the crazy stuff about them being dreadful evil killing machines are simply out of touch with reality.

They're here to stay, at least for a while, and we're going to be seeing a lot more of them. We should be celebrating them, appreciating their grandeur and the cheap, clean energy they produce - not mounting a daft campaign to keep them at least 2km away from our houses.

So let's hear it for windfarms, the astonishing, inspiring, hypnotically ethereal, environmentally-friendly power plants of the future.

We should feel privileged to be having one near us - even if some of those who already are privileged haven't seen the light yet.

MIXED MESSAGES

Well, the new signs are going up. And they look a bit odd and ... well ... daft, really.

A stranger to the area, seeing these yellow signs, here and there, reading:

'2km OK - KEEP YOUR DISTANCE'

What would they think? Everyone should be keeping two kilometres away from the Lenches?

Even weirder is when these signs have been set up right next to the old VVASP signs which say 'NO'.

So you've got: 'NO' to the windfarm, and then, '2km OK'.

Which is it? Is it a 'NO' or is it an 'OK'? What the hell are these people on about?

One of my correspondents has pointed out to me that the two kilometre campaign has been gaining ground and suspects that this is an attempt by the protesters to appear to be taking up a more reasonable position with the regard to the windfarm, when in fact they're promoting an unrealistic objective.

After all, a two kilometre exclusion zone between wind turbines and the nearest dwellings, if implemented, would make it difficult for any kind of windfarm to be built in the Lenches, or pretty well anywhere else in England for that matter.

So, in many ways, the '2km OK' campaign is totally unrealistic. It's like the protesters saying, 'We'll accept a windfarm near us, just as long as the turbines are not more than 2ft high'!

From a PR point-of-view, the new signs are rubbish. Their message doesn't really make sense - especially when placed next to the ugly old 'NO' placards.

And, even when you've figured out whatever point the sign is trying to make, the problem then is that it's not a reasonable point.

No other country in Europe has a two kilometre limit where windfarms and dwellings are concerned.

The protesters keep rabbiting on about Scotland, and even France, as examples of places where windfarms can't be built closer than 2km from houses.

Well, that's simply not true. Neither country has such a rule.

And by imposing such a rule, uniquely, in the UK, we would simply continue to lag behind the rest of Europe in windpower.

Given the government's new commitment to windpower, the '2km' campaign is yet another waste of time. It isn't going to happen. It can't happen. It would be extremely foolish and counter-productive of the UK to impose such a rule.

I suspect VVASP know that. But they're just trying to look like they've got a reasonable solution.

Two words that don't really go together: VVASP and 'reasonable'.

MORE LIES

The familiar tendency of the anti-windfarm protesters to be - ahem - 'economical with the truth' is shown again in this week's Evesham Journal.

The local paper notes that 'Plans for a windfarm in the Lenches look more likely to go ahead after the Government announced it would back windfarm applications as part of its renewable energy strategy.'

The article goes on to state that 'a local opinion poll showed that opposition to the scheme is growing.'

Unless anyone can tell me otherwise, I know of only one proper opinion poll carried out in Church Lench. With no more recent measurement of public opinion, how on earth could VVASP know that 'opposition to the scheme is growing'?

Okay, since the opinion poll, ugly yellow placards have sprung up like mushrooms in a few villages, many placed on land which did not belong to anyone associated with the protest group. VVASP has continued to belabour locals with dangerous propaganda and behaved in just the sort of way guaranteed to remove planning decisions from the district.

But by what measure can they conclude that opposition is growing?

The chair of Church Lench Parish Council added, 'In fact, no one has yet come forward in support of them [the windfarm plans].'

Oooh, bad chair. Naughty chair. Misleading the public like that. Now go and sit on the naughty step and have a long, hard think about what you've done.

Support for the windfarm is pretty widespread. I hear from supporters of the proposals - and opponents of VVASP - every day.

The supporters of the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm do, however, have the good taste not to plaster the area with placards. A few Merry Men keep removing these eyesores, thereby suggesting that some in the Lenches still have a sense of proportion.

But the real reason that supporters of the windfarm tend to keep their heads down?

How about the threats made against those who don't share VVASP's blinkered views?

How about the problem of being rounded on by red-faced nimbies and those who have been suckered by VVASP and their hysterical claims?

The Mafia-like gang mentality of the protesters actively discourages open debate. The chair of Church Lench Parish Council knows full well that there are plenty of people in favour of the plans, or even not especially bothered either way. He perhaps knows that numerous residents are appalled by the behaviour of the protesters, which has turned several fence-sitters into supporters of the windfarm.

But he feels it's safe to pretend that the supporters are not there because, a) the supporters tend to be more civilised than the antis, and b) woe betide anyone in Church Lench who expresses an independent view.

These are just the sort of tactics that have led the government to consider changing the planning system. Protest groups like VVASP simply cannot be trusted. They exist to scare and intimidate those around them.

But the windfarm supporters will have their day. It is they who have the best interests of the country, and the countryside, at heart.

GREAT NEWS!!!!!

Today, Ed Miliband and the Department for Energy and Climate Change published the government's long-awaited Renewable Energy Strategy.

Britain, currently lagging behind the rest of Europe in the renewable energy stakes, is to see a massive increase in renewable energy generation over the next decade, with wind at the heart of the strategy.

As tonight's Channel 4 News showed, the CBI is all in favour of these developments, seeing fantastic investment opportunities, with the proviso that the UK government must sort out the farce that is planning.

As predicted in this blog, the DECC is setting up and Office for Renewable Energy Deployment to improve the planning system. What this, presumably, will mean is that planning decisions over windfarms will be taken out of local hands - which means that district councillors will not have to yelled at by raging mobs of idiots who don't know what they're on about.

And, to combat the arguments of nimby groups like VVASP that wind is simply too unreliable, the government is looking into a 'smart grid' capable of compensating for fluctuations in energy supply.

So - ScottishPower Renewables can, if it chooses, delay submitting planning proposals for the Lenchwick Windfarm until the government has sorted out its new, more sensible planning system. Or it can submit its plans this autumn on the reasonable assumption that the decision will not, in the end, be taken by Wychavon DC.

BUT - the pointless, misguided waste of tax payers' money by the local parish councils must stop immediately! Wasting our money on the VVASP's campaign, via the puppet-intermediary of Church Lench Parish Council's 'Windfarm Working Party', no longer has any purpose whatsoever. It was a bad idea in the first place. Now, it is probable that it will just be money down the drain - OUR money!

We who have seen the future and were on the right side of the debate all along can, however, allow ourselves a glass of champers, or maybe a nice local cider. Because the news from the DECC today is good news: just what the country needs.

And VVASP and others like them can go take a very long hike! Ha-ha!!

DETERRING DEMOCRACY

The likelihood that planning permission for windfarms will be taken out of the hands of district councils is increasing.

As the Times Online revealed this week, the number of windfarms in the UK is set to quadruple. Contrary to the nonsense spouted by nimby groups like VVASP and their pet rag, the Daily Mail, a team of international scientists led by Professor Michael McElroy of Harvard has concluded that a global network of sensibly-sited windfarms could supply 40 times the world's current electricity needs.

But to catch up quickly, to hit Government targets for renewable energy and to start harnessing this extraordinary resource - the wind - to maximum effect, the planning process needs to be streamlined. Both energy companies and the RSPB have complained about the needless delays created by ill-informed nimbies whipping up hysteria, spreading irresponsible myths and organising mobs of hectoring, howling protesters at public planning meetings.

Naturally, VVASP and their fellow nimby nutters are outraged at the suggestion that planning for these things could be removed from local councils.

The reality is that the protesters have only got themselves to blame. Their lies, fear-mongering and sheer mindless aggression have turned local planning into a farce. District councillors have complained of feeling browbeaten and bullied by the crazed mobs organised by anti-windfarm protest groups.

Well, if that's how the nimbies want to behave, so be it. It just means that district councillors will be absolved of the responsibility of judging windfarm planning applications and will no longer be threatened by demented hordes who have been repeatedly lied to and misled by their nimby leaders.

Objections to windfarms should be based purely on local matters - in other words, fraudulent arguments about the so-called 'inefficiency' of windfarms are of no relevance, thankfully. Aesthetics, too, are not much of an argument, because it is clear to anyone with half a brain that the Lenchwick Windfarm will not 'kill the Vale countryside', as a VVASP mouthpiece has claimed. Besides, many people - decent, open-minded people - find them beautiful.

This just leaves noise. Consequently, nimby groups like VVASP take each and every opportunity available to them to play up the noise issue. The real noise generated by windfarms tends to come as a surprise - they're actually remarkably quiet. But that's not the point. VVASP has an interest in misleading residents about the noise made by windfarms, and so that's what they do. Constantly. Shamelessly. And with utter disregard for the truth and contempt for the people they're misleading.

Most planning applications for windfarms which are turned down at district council level are done so on the basis of noise. This does not mean that windfarms are noisy - only that district council planning committees, faced with a mob of ugly, red-faced loons shrieking and shouting at them, plump for noise as the only objection going.

Planning officers at district councils regularly recommend that their planning committees approve the planning applications - but then, the officers are seldom confronted by gangs of hysterical nimbies in the same way that council members are.

The councillors don't ignore the advice of their experts. They're just coerced by raging maniacs into rejecting the planning applications, and the only reason they can legitimately give for doing so is 'noise'.

Again, the protesters, by lying about windfarm noise and then bullying their democratically elected councillors into voting down the proposals on that phoney basis, are destroying local democracy and leading to a situation in which such decisions will be taken far away, in Westminster and Whitehall, where deranged mobs of misinformed protesters can't pressurise the decision-makers into making the wrong decision.

Then, at least, we might start getting somewhere. And it will, in fact, be a good day for democracy. Because it is the nimbies - VVASP and their ilk - who have destroyed democracy at a local level by placing their own narrow, short-term interests ahead of the wider long-term need.

Lies, in the long run, never work. They come back to haunt the liars.

And when the decision-making process is taken away from local councils and assumed by central government, the lies and despicable tactics of the VVASP and their like will have been the cause.

CAMPAIGNING AGAINST THE COUNTRYSIDE

The dream of moving out to the country is one shared by many.



But the consequences of too many people leaving the cities for the rural life are now becoming painfully obvious. Apart from other problems, like the lack of affordable housing, one major headache caused by too great a migration of interlopers is a complete misunderstanding of what the countryside is all about.



Too many city-dwellers turned would-be country squires haven't the foggiest idea of the extent to which our entire landscape has been shaped over the years by human activity. As a consequence, they expect the countryside to remain unchanged, dormant and effectively dead from the moment they arrive.



One example is the Church Lench Parish Councillor who has campaigned feverishly against her local farm being ... well, a farm. She wants something nice to look at, not an agricultural business and a livelihood which has sustained local families for generations.



A countryside that never changes is an mythic idyll dreamt up by city-dwellers. Now that they have moved out into rural villages, they think they have the right to impose that non-existent idyll on their local area. They are becoming the new, self-appointed custodians of the countryside, elbowing working farmers - the traditional custodians of the countryside - aside in their haste to force their own views down everybody throats.



Farmers in the main are not opposed to windfarms. Okay, there is the odd one who grumbles because the turbines aren't on his land, but otherwise, the farming community welcomes windfarms as a sensible, effective use of land. Most farming activities are kind of a waste of time, thanks to supermarkets, mostly, but windfarms offer investment without damage to farmland, and they allow farmers to continue raising livestock or growing cash crops while guaranteeing a much-needed regular income.



But, of course, the newcomers to the countryside HATE farmers - especially those who insist on making a living. These newcomers honestly think that the countryside exists solely for them: that it is their privilege, as wealthy property owners, to dictate how the countryside works - or, more often, how it doesn't.



If the nimbies get their way, the countryside around the Lenches will die just a little bit more. It will become just a picture, a view from the windows of a few, in which nothing ever happens or is allowed to happen. It will be a dead thing. In claiming, bizarrely and irrationally, that the Lenchwick Windfarm will 'kill the Vale countryside', the thoughtless protesters of VVASP are doing their absolute utmost to kill the local, as well as the global, environment.



The link below, sent to me by one of the followers of this blog, puts the more intelligent, open-minded and reasonable case. It is a timely celebration of the good windfarms can do, not just for society, but for the rural landscape.



It is what has been lacking from the narrow-minded local debate - a sense of joy, wonder, excitement, hope and possibilities. The deadheads of VVASP want the land, their local area, to be as dead as they are, to be as lacking in life and joy as they are. This article - from The Times, of all places - proves that we don't need to conform to their hideously inappropriate vision of 'their' countryside and that their dull fantasy of an inactive, moribund rural landscape is not shared by those who appreciate the living, ever-changing countryside.


Read it, and enjoy:


http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/caitlin_moran/article6682305.ece?openComment=true

JUMPING THE GUN

In the minutes for Harvington Parish Council's meeting on 8 December 2008, the chair made it clear that the parish council had decided to support VVASP's shabby anti-windfarm campaign.

This was BEFORE Harvington PC conducted a poll of residents and only 31% of those polled expressed opposition to the windfarm!

Church Lench Parish Council was effectively taken over by active supporters of VVASP several months ago.

Fladbury Parish Council has now voted to contribute to the 'Windfarm Working Party's noise date and 'legal advice' on the Environmental Impact Statement.

Has anyone seen this Environmental Impact Statement, yet? Or are our parish councillors preemptively seeking legal advice, before the EIS has even appeared?

In other words, have they already made up their minds to oppose the planning application for the Lenchwick Windfarm? And how much of our money are they prepared to spend while they go hunting for excuses to oppose it?

Any parish council which shows clear prejudice and bias to a planning application before it's even submitted can have its objections disqualified by the district council planning committee.

Now, wouldn't that be fun? Thousands of pounds of council tax payers money wasted by your parish councillors, and for what?

To have their objections ignored because they couldn't even PRETEND to be giving a planning application due consideration?

Well, at least Norton and Lenchwick Parish Council are playing by the rules and striving, in the face of intolerable pressure, to do their democratic duties properly. They were tricked into shelling out £750 from the precept to keep VVASP/Church Lench Parish Council quiet. But they're doing all they reasonably can to remain properly impartial until the planning application actually arrives.

But let's hope that the others continue to make their lack of impartiality, their evident bias and their tendency to be hoodwinked by VVASP's blatant propaganda obvious to all and sundry.

And then they can explain to their local residents why they threw so much public money away on a fruitless and misguided exercise, and why their failure to remain properly objective led to the district council disqualifying their objections.

Then life in the Lenches really will be interesting!!!

SOUND INVESTMENTS

It's probably fair to state that most people in the Lenches don't like taxes.

I know that nobody really likes paying tax, but those who have money generally like to keep it for themselves and strenuously oppose having their wealth redistributed.

But now, it would appear, the people of Church Lench have warmed to the idea of redistributing wealth by means of taxes. Specifically, they're using your taxes to pay for their opposition to the Lenchwick Windfarm.

At least two local parish councils have been tapped for significant contributions towards the costs of sound equipment. Operating through its 'Windfarm Working Party', Church Lench Parish Council intends to run a background noise-level survey.

This will run alongside the same survey commissioned by ScottishPower Renewables from independent experts.

The assumption, as the minutes of Harvington Parish Council's meeting in May make clear, is that ScottishPower will misrepresent the findings of the independent noise-level survey when submitting its planning application for the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm.

One could argue that the implication that Scottish Power would lie to the district council's planning committee is potentially libellous. Given the kind of nonsensical opposition to windfarms whipped up by VVASP - who effectively control Church Lench Parish Council - it would be a PR disaster for Scottish Power if they were caught out telling porkies. The nimbies would gladly pass on that information to all their nimby friends fighting similarly vital developments up and down the country, meaning that Scottish Power had basically shot itself in the foot.

Notwithstanding the silliness of the idea that ScottishPower Renewables and the consultants would lie to the planning committee, Church Lench PC has leant on the surrounding parish councils in order to fund this complete waste of money - a rival noise survey of their own. It's premature, given that a parish council can not respond to a planning application until it has actually been submitted. It's also prejudicial.

The whole point of this extraneous and expensive survey - which we, as council tax payers, are actually paying for - is to see if the parish councillors of Church Lench can find any grounds whatsoever, however slim, to oppose the windfarm. It's a fishing expedition, and an expensive one at that, paid for out of your taxes.

There are plenty of people in VVASP who could pay for this survey, if they chose, but no - YOU can pay for it, so that the well-heeled protesters don't have to dip into their own sizeable pockets.

The VVASP protest group has seriously misrepresented pretty well every fact available about windfarms. They have misrepresented the scale of local opposition to the turbines. They have misrepresented the noise made by turbines. And so on, and so on, and so on.

Now, they're effectively accusing the windfarm developer, before the fact, of misrepresenting background noise levels in the Lenches and commissioning their own survey (paid for by YOU).

Seriously, whose figures would you be more likely to trust? VVASP's? Not given their track record with truth and science. The planning department at Wychavon District Council is already aware of VVASP's tactics and the extent of local unhappiness at all the hectoring, the bullying, the lies, the myths and the propaganda. So why should the planning officers or members of the planning committee at Wychavon take a survey, commissioned by VVASP under the auspices of Church Lench Parish Council and a so-called 'Windfarm Working Party', seriously?

This whole thing is a waste of time and YOUR money - especially if you don't live in the Lenches, because only in Church Lench is there a majority of opposition to the windfarm. So why aren't they paying for this silly survey themselves?

Because they do have to try to appear to be just a little bit neutral and they don't want to spend all their own money when they can get other parish councils to cover the costs.

If Church Lench Parish Council is seen to be prejudiced and biased towards the windfarm before the planning application is received, their responses to the application can be disqualified and ignored by the Wychavon planning committee.

The fact that Church Lench Parish Councillors tend to have 'Stop Lenchwick Windfarm' placards and stickers all over their properties would suggest that any pretence at neutrality went out of the window months ago.

Their so-called 'Windfarm Working Party', which includes reps from the other parish councils in the vicinity, is realistically about as impartial as the councillors on Church Lench PC. It exists to trade misleading, fear-mongering 'information', as supplied by VVASP, and to try and find reasons to oppose a planning application which hasn't even been submitted yet.

Are you happy that they're using your money doing this? Or do you feel that the parish council precepts should be used for what they're meant for - i.e. the proper business of a parish council?

It's your money. You decide.

A MISUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS?

Is council tax payers' money being given to a protest group to fight the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm?


Might that mean a rise in council tax bills next year?


Do YOU want YOUR tax money spent on a political campaign by nimbies who represent a minority of residents?


Let's try to answer these questions. To the first, the answer, it would appear, could be 'Yes'.


Some background: several months ago, Church Lench Parish Council collapsed. A mob of aggressive loudmouths had been holding up parish council meetings, demanding that 'something' be done about ScottishPower Renewable's plans to build a windfarm at Lenchwick. The protesters made it impossible for the parish council to carry out its business. The majority of the parish councillors resigned because of the abuse they were receiving for sticking to the rules. This allowed supporters of VVASP to take over Church Lench Parish Council.


A 'working party' has since been set up, apparently at the insistence of the new Church Lench Parish Council and their friends in VVASP. This 'working party' includes representatives from the parish councils of Church Lench, Norton and Lenchwick, Harvington, Hill and Moor, Fladbury, and Bishampton and Throckmorton. The 'working party' is essentially demanding a blank cheque from the parish councils to fund its activities. The Norton and Lenchwick Parish Council website states that its representative on the 'working party' will act in an advisory capacity to the Parish Council with regard to the [windfarm] planning application but will not participate in the Parish Council's response to Wychavon District Council regarding the application to ensure the Parish Council's integrity and credibility. Whatever can they mean?


Anyway, after much heated debate, Norton and Lenchwick Parish Council voted narrowly on Tuesday night to make a one-off payment of £750 - rather than the desired blank cheque - to fund this 'working party'.


Now, two things:


1) Parish councils receive a budget or 'precept' which comes from council taxes. The Windfarm Working Party is therefore asking for almost unlimited use of the annual precepts which have just been received by the parish councils in order to carry out its work. That money comes from council tax payers, who traditionally like to see it spent wisely.


2) The Windfarm Working Party's real purpose is unclear. Some parish councillors are insisting that it is only a perfectly innocent information-gathering/sharing body - which begs the questions: why do they need so much money? What information are they trying to gather? And why will at least one of the council reps not be allowed to vote on the Lenchwick Windfarm planning application? Other parish councillors are clear that the 'working party' has been set up for no other purpose than to fight the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm. This could explain why reps might not be allowed to vote on the planning application - because they are already engaged in an anti campaign funded by YOUR parish council, which is surely a grossly inappropriate use of public money.


After all, one of the first things the working party did was to meet up with Peter Luff MP to discuss 'strategy'. What 'strategy' does the Windfarm Working Party need, unless it was set up simply to find grounds for opposing the windfarm proposal, using council tax money which has been given to the parish councils for other things.



No wonder Norton and Lenchwick Parish Council is trying so hard to preserve its 'integrity and credibility' - not to mention its impartiality - in the face of this kind of activity!


Parish councils are required to remain impartial and open-minded until a planning application has been submitted. If the Windfarm Working Party is already looking for ways of fighting the proposal - and using YOUR money in doing so - then it is jumping the gun. ScottishPower Renewables have not yet submitted a planning application. So any parish council which knowingly decides to fund a working party dedicated to frustrating the windfarm proposal is already guilty of prejudice and bias.


Another question: if the new Church Lench Parish Council is behind the creation of the Windfarm Working Party, how can we tell that it's not, in reality, a cover for VVASP? Especially if, as some local parish councillors insist, the working party's sole purpose is, like VVASP's, to challenge the windfarm plans.


In other words, how can we tell whether OUR money is being spent, one way or other, on VVASP's disingenuous campaign, regardless of whether we like it or not? A campaign which, as the polls carried out by three parish councils indicate, and a previous blog explains*, is supported by only a minority of locals.



(* See under entries for May - 'Can't they get any facts right?')


Harvington Parish Council has already created a 'Windfarm Budget' - this is the village where less than a third of residents expressed opposition to the windfarm - and agreed to fund 20% of a proposed background noise-monitoring exercise to run alongside that organised by ScottishPower Renewables**. They seem to think that SPR might tell porkies about the background noise levels in the planning application. Ha! There's paranoia for you.



(** Harvington PC minutes, May 2009)


But why should the Windfarm Working Party want the full allocation of parish council funds for this year? Remember: Church Lench Parish Council and VVASP are joined at the hip. Now, their offspring, the Windfarm Working Party, wants to spend as much of your money as it can lay its hands on to carry out some vague sort of research. Could something sinister be going on?


Currently, VVASP are engaged in a massive fundraising exercise. They want to employ a barrister to fight on their behalf against the windfarm. And we all know how much barristers cost - even one prepared to defend VVASP's wild claims and objectionable tactics. They've also joined a European group of anti-wind activists ('wind-breakers'? - Ed.). Somehow, all this will have to be paid for. So wouldn't it be nice if Church Lench and the other five parish councils took some of the pressure off VVASP and covered the costs of its so-called fact-finding?


Is it possible that the parish councils are now being pressurised or tricked into putting significant amounts of public money into the anti-windfarm campaign, pointlessly replicating independent surveys, maybe even indirectly helping VVASP to engage legal representation, and therefore getting us to pay for their anti-social, time-wasting, undemocratic opposition to a perfectly rational, harmless and beneficial development?


Is that what you pay your council tax for?


Let's say that not all of the parish councils are as balanced as Norton and Lenchwick's. What if one of the parish councils (let's say, for sake of argument, that which represents VVASP Central - i.e. Church Lench) decides to spend its full precept on trying to find some slim grounds on which to challenge the application? That is, spending public money, not on what it was meant for, but on politically-motivated 'research'?


Okay, so they're getting the other parishes to chip in, but would a parish council that's heavily biased against the windfarm not be tempted to keep dipping into public funds for as long as they're available, if only to satisfy the noisier egos in the village that they're doing something?


And isn't challenging the windfarm proposal VVASP's job, not the parish council's - not at this stage, anyway?


Oh, but of course! There's suddenly an influx of public money into parish council coffers! And if it's difficult to tell where VVASP ends and the Windfarm Working Party begins, just think of all the ways that public money - tax payers' money - could be diverted into trying to stop the windfarm!


If an irresponsible parish council were to write the Windfarm Working Party a blank cheque to do VVASP's dirty work, how would they meet the costs of other commitments? How can the additional expenses of unnecessary 'information gathering' be covered by a precept which was calculated to provide for the ordinary needs of the parish council? What about the things that money is meant to be spent on? Does nothing matter to some of these people, other than fighting the windfarm by any means, fair or foul, and preferably with YOUR money?


And what if one or more parish council's channelling of your money into a political cause meant that, next year, EVERYBODY's council tax bill saw an increase to cover the overspend achieved by councillors who don't know the meaning of the word 'impartial'?


It's obvious what it would mean - that we, the people, many of whom are all in favour of the Lenchwick Windfarm, would have seen our own tax money spent on a misguided attempt at fighting the proposed windfarm, purely for the benefit of privileged individuals in the Lenches, and without our knowledge or say so, and that we could yet see our council tax bills rise because OUR money has been wasted on somebody else's irrational campaign.


I would urge everyone to question their parish councillors about these developments. It would seem that, under the auspices of an 'information gathering' working party, the anti-windfarm lobby is getting its hands on YOUR money for its own ends.


Ironic, really. The same people have pooh-poohed Scottish Power's offer to make thousands of pounds available annually to the local parish councils when the windfarm is up and running. The VVASP goons have referred to this as a 'bribe'. Now, it would appear, they would rather spend YOUR money fighting their selfish little battle than accept money for the community from a windfarm developer.



So, if you want to see your tax money spent responsibly on worthwhile community projects, insist that your parish councillors don't use the precepts to fund VVASP's demented campaign, even if it is disguised as a 'Windfarm Working Party'.

WHISPER WHO DARES

Think about it.

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed. A wind turbine exists to turn wind energy into kinetic energy and then into electricity. Any noise created in the process would not just be a public nuisance - it would be a waste of energy. Designers of wind turbines and windfarm developers have every reason to ensure that they make as little noise as possible.

Now, there are some people in the Vale and its villages who know this. They also know that windfarms are practically silent. Their holiday homes are near windfarms, or they have visited windfarms in the UK or elsewhere. They have found out for themselves and, generally, they have no objection to the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm because THEY KNOW WINDFARMS ARE NOT NOISY.

There are others in the area who THINK windfarms are noisy. They have no personal experience of windfarms, but they refuse to accept the evidence of those who have because VVASP have TOLD them that they're noisy.

These people will argue themselves into a corner because they don't want to hear the truth, they just want to listen to the rabid bleatings of a bunch of self-centred nimbies.

There is, of course, a third group of people. These have visited windfarms. One of them, at least, has a grasp of physics. Their experience has shown them that windfarms make hardly any noise at all. And yet ...

And yet they refuse to let others know this. Why? Because they are the hardcore of VVASP and they WANT other people to believe what they KNOW to be untrue.

They have repeatedly misled people over the noise issue.

How does this square with their claim to be helping residents to make an 'informed decision'?

How on earth can misinforming them help them make an 'informed' decision?

I know of one guy - who has plenty of engineering experience - who has been told by people he knows very well that windfarms are not noisy. These people KNOW. But he won't believe it. Because VVASP have lied and lied and lied to him about this.

Every time VVASP put out yet more misleading propaganda about windfarm noise they betray their base motives. They're not interested in helping anyone to make an 'informed' decision - because those who do so tend to come out in favour of the windfarm. They desperately want their friends and neighbours to make a MISINFORMED decision.

One day, those graceful and spectacular turbines will be turning away near our villages, and those who were repeatedly lied to by VVASP about the noise will realise that they were being deliberately misled by people they respected.

Till then, people in the Lenches are trying not to make too much noise of their own. Consultants working for ScottishPower Renewables are monitoring the background noise as part of the consultation/planning process. So the sillier nimbies are trying to tiptoe about the place, as if to fool the experts into thinking that there's never any noise whatsoever in the Lenches.

It is true, of course, that immigrants into the villages have killed off some of the noise we used to enjoy - like the motorcross which took place on King Hill for many years (stopped by selfish beasts from the cities).

But, seriously, what is the point of trying to misrepresent the normal background noise levels in the Lenches when the wind turbines will add next to nothing to them anyway? Maybe if they didn't believe their own nonsense about windfarm noise (and why should they, when some of them at least know for a fact that it's not true) they wouldn't be creeping about the place now.

I guess some people will believe whatever they want to believe, regardless of evidence and experience. And if those people are VVASP, they'll do all they can to make everybody else believe the same rubbish.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

Thanks, again, to my growing band of informants, correspondents and researchers out there.

Not only is it encouraging to discover just how big the grassroots support for the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm is, as well as how many are appalled, depressed and disgusted by the shabby tactics of VVASP; it's good to have fresh insights and sources of information.

This, for example, was sent in recently. It's an interesting examination of the tricks being used by climate change deniers and anti-windfarm groups. Note that the main tactics were devised by fundamentalist Christians in the States to challenge the Darwinian theory of evolution. The same refusal to grapple with science, reality and common sense is evident in the anti-windfarm protests.

Here's the link: http://blog.businessgreen.com/2009/06/teach-the-contr.html

It's a wake-up call, both to the wind energy industry and to those who care about the future (I mean REALLY care about it). The blog entry outlines, in simple form, the tactics used, disingenuously, by the protesters, which are:

1) pretend that there is a 'debate' about wind power and doubts about its effectiveness and efficiency

2) pretend that some sort of conspiracy, involving the European Union, government tax subsidies, money-grubbing energy firms, whatever, is involved in foisting these turbines on people who just happen to live in rural areas

3) pretend to be taking a more 'balanced' position than the developers - along the lines of VVASP's meaningless and utterly fraudulent 'right technology in the right environment' claptrap

Each of these tactics are based on misleading information, misrepresenting basic facts and - well, let's be honest - lying your head off left, right and centre. Like the crazy fundamentalists in the US, it allows weirdos to appear to be talking sense when, in reality, their ideas are ridiculous and their motives extremely questionable.

These tactics can be countered by making sure that the REAL facts (i.e., not the made-up VVASP 'facts') are known.

There is nothing to fear from windfarms - unless you've been conned by self-interested groups like VVASP into believing that they're somehow, magically and mysteriously, dangerous.

But there's plenty to fear from people who feel no compunction about lying, and lying, and lying again, in order to force other people to support their entirely selfish and unreasonable views.

A NATIONAL CRISIS

This is a rallying call to patriots.

Some of my correspondents have sent in a very sad piece of news. You can see it here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8129882.stm

Now, first of all, it's not the end of the world, especially if the secretary of state does the right thing and approves the application, just as the North Dorset planning officers recommended and as the government's own policies require.

But what does the North Dorset news mean?

Well, first of all it's interesting (although no surprise) to find that the anti-windfarm protesters of Dorset deployed the same mealy-mouthed nonsense as our friends in VVASP. "We are in favour of renewable energy and don't object to wind farms in the right place," said one of the Dorset protesters. Does that sound familiar?

So - where is the 'right place'? What if every protest group advanced that loopy argument? What if the whole country was deemed out-of-bounds to renewable energy developers because everybody was 'in favour' of windfarms but only 'in the right place' - i.e., not near them?

Here's the really sad thing: back in the early '90s, the UK was leading the world in windpower. Windfarms had been originally developed in the States, partly as a response to the energy crisis of the '70s (and the fact that the US had already reached 'peak oil', the moment at which extracting oil from the ground becomes progressively more difficult and expensive). The UK soon took the lead in developing this cheap, harmless energy source.

Then - disaster. People started making up stories about wind turbines.

Now we're hearing from some of the leading companies involved in the renewable energy business that it's not really worth their while developing clean, green projects in the UK - the reason being the 'unnecessary delays' caused by protesters talking nonsense, winding up their neighbours and standing in the way of progress.

Which means that the rest of the world is stealing a march on us. Once at the forefront of sustainable energy, the UK is rapidly falling behind, only because there are people in this country who prefer lies to truth and who will put their own short-term interests in front of the long-term interests of the nation (and, indeed, the planet).

This is probably the outcome of the cult of the individual which came in with Margaret Thatcher. Remember she said that 'There's no such thing as society'? Well, convert that to 'There's no such thing as climate change' and 'We're all in favour of renewable energy but only in the right place' and you'll see how we got to where we are.

The debate is not about renewable energy and a sustainable future. It's about egos. It's about a relatively small minority who exist purely on the basis of 'I want' and who don't give a fig for others, for the environment, for future generations, for the greater good or the national interest.

That's it in a nutshell: rampant self-interest versus the national interest. In our local area, it's about spoilt inheritors and arrogant ex-City types pursuing their own narrow views and forcing everyone to agree with them. It's about a minor issue - whether a wind turbine might be visible from the road outside their house (and not about noise: that's just a myth spun by the antis) - as opposed to a major issue - whether we will be able to provide for our energy needs in a few years' time.

Anyone who cares about the countryside, the environment, the planet, the future, the nation's needs and the prestige of the UK can only support the development of windfarms.

Contrary to what the myth-mongers keep repeating, they do work, and other countries are developing them at speed and relying on the electricity they generate (more or less for free). They present no threat to wildlife and they are practically noise-free.

All the myths and lies spouting by groups like VVASP are designed to mislead the public for one reason alone: to ensure that the privileged few get to enjoy their nice country homes without having to put up with a little bit of reality in the neighbourhood.

This argument is about greed versus need, about selfishness versus common sense. Ignore all the pompous and utterly disingenuous arguments about Europe, Gordon Brown, tax subsidies for renewables, climate change denial and falsified or misquoted reports concerning wind farms.

It's time for the UK to take the lead again - and to do this, those of us who do care must shout down the nimbies, the self-interested liars, the bullies and the myth-mongers. The future is on our side. It will not be long before the maniacs who stood in the way of these graceful devices are recognised as traitors to the planet and betrayers of the national interest. But every time they get their way till then, the nation takes a step backwards and a vital solution to a truly pressing crisis is unnecessarily postponed.

Which matters more - a reliable supply of clean energy for all, or uninterrupted views from the bottom of the garden for a few?

Shout down the protesters. They are betraying us all. Their foolish self-interest is holding the UK back. So be a patriot and actively support the Lenchwick Windfarm, for all our sakes.

STAYING OUT OF TOUCH

That bundle of contradictions and dodgy information known as 'VVASP NEWS' has come through our door.

So, what's the latest from La-La Land?

Well, you'll be pleased to hear that their Open Gardens day raised £466 for the anti-windfarm fighting fund, so well done anyone who thought they were just visiting a garden and not contributing to a time-wasting political cause. Then again, £466 would probably pay for about twenty minutes of a barrister's time, so there's a long way to go yet.

Also, apparently, windfarms are no longer a terrible problem. Vale Villagers Against Scottish Power have launched their latest campaign for the summer. Entitled 'Keep Your Distance', the campaign offers local dupes the chance to put all new hideous placards up and even to wear T-shirts emblazoned with the words '2km OK'.

VVASP insist that they campaign for 'the right technology in the right environment'. Now, apparently, the 'right environment' is two kilometres away.

They're on a hiding to nothing. The '2 kilometre' minimum is an arbitrary distance, based on the myth that, in Scotland, all windfarms must be kept at least two kilometres from the nearest dwelling. Like all the VVASP's anti-windfarm myths, this one was exploded a long time ago. But, apparently, two kilometres away is 'OK'.

This is a new development, probably triggered by the fact that people in the Lenches have had chance to see a map, acquired by dubious means, which shows the likely sites of the turbines. Most of the Lenches lot will have realised, then, that the turbines are unlikely to affect them. VVASP, knowing that they have to find some grounds to hold up the process, are launching their '2km OK' campaign because ... well, because there isn't really anything else they can campaign about.

But they're still pushing the wholly mythical 'noisy windfarms' nonsense. A report is quoted, written by a 'Practising GP', which indicates that wind turbines generate noise and affect health.

As usual, though, their information is selective and misleading.

NPower opened their Bears Down windfarm near Padstow in Cornwall in 2001 to 96% local approval (http://www.npowerrenewables.com/bearsdown/results.asp). Three years later, Dr Amanda Harry, a GP based in Plymouth, polled fourteen locals and discovered that the windfarm had affected their 'quality of life'.

If that sample seems rather too small to be scientific, it should be pointed out that those locals all lived in a caravan park, comprising fourteen static caravans, which is situated just 500 metres from the turbines. Disgruntled, disaffected, not really a part of the local community and considerably closer to the turbines than anyone else - or anyone in the Lenches will be - the fourteen caravanners were only too happy to whinge to an interfering GP.

Because Dr Harry's not-very-scientific-or-conclusive report was quoted in the Telegraph in 2007, VVASP are able to pretend that her conclusions are based on 'years' of study.

Ha! The usual bullshit. The British Wind Energy Association has pointed out, repeatedly, that 'noisy' windfarms are a myth and that there's no actual evidence of any kind to back up Dr Harry's claims.

Which is a pattern repeated wherever a small minority of people in the vicinity of a working windfarm complain about noise, even when they can neither see nor hear the turbines. There's no evidence, no scientific measurements, nothing but a small group of people grumbling.

In an earlier blog, I pointed out that people are perfectly capable of convincing themselves of all sorts of strange things. This is what makes VVASP's continued attempts to convince local residents that windfarms are noisy so unbelievably sick and irresponsible - because some people are able to BELIEVE that they can hear them, whether they actually can or not.

If you accept the evidence - from scientists, local residents and your own eyes and ears - you'll know that windfarms are not noisy. If you believe the craven bullshitters of VVASP and their like, you'll think that windfarms are noisy. The first lot will not hear them. The second lot might think that they can.

VVASP are strenuously striving to ruin your quality of life by making you believe in something which doesn't exist!!!

Of course, the real issue is whether the propagandists of VVASP actually do believe their own nonsense, or are they intelligent enough to know that it's nonsense but still want to foist it on their friends and neighbours for political reasons.

But Dr Amanda Harry's 'report' is of no use or value, scientifically. We could all go and find fourteen people who don't like a nearby windfarm and blatantly ignore the vast majority of local residents who are happy with them.

The pity is that VVASP are so chronically incapable of being straight about this.

Oh, and anyone caught wearing a T-shirt with '2km OK - KEEP YOUR DISTANCE' on it is obviously asking for normal people to keep two kilometres away from them. Those of us who know the kind of people behind the VVASP campaign will acknowledge that two kilometres is the minimal distance we would want to be from any of them.

SPOT THE FALLACY

Can you spot the logical flaw in this argument?

To meet all our energy needs we would need to build thousands of windfarms, effectively covering the available land with them. When the wind isn't blowing, we'd still need backup supplies, probably from coal-fired, gas-fired or nuclear power stations. Therefore, wind power is completely pointless.

Did you spot it?

A lot of opponents of the Lenchwick windfarm - and numerous others, including windfarms in general - advance an argument like this. And, at first glance, it's a compelling one.

Until you remember that NOBODY has ever suggested that we should try to generate ALL our ever-growing electricity needs from wind.

There's a kind of absolutism creeping into the debate. This is not helped by scientists of various backgrounds who each espouse their own preferred 'solution'. Some will insist that only nuclear can provide for our needs. Others will advance solar power. Some like to think that, with the right advances in carbon-capture technology, coal could again be king. So obsessed are certain experts with their chosen source that they'll readily ridicule any of the others.

Anti-windfarm protest groups, like VVASP, can pick and choose quotes from these 'experts', leading to the kind of argument outlined at the top of this post. In its simplest form, the argument goes:

1) To supply all our electricity we'd need too many turbines
2) One day the wind won't blow, and then we'd need something else
3) Windfarms don't work

Now, can you remember a time when all our electricity was generated from a single source, be it nuclear, coal or gas? No?

So why is wind energy seen as such a failure? What is this nonsense about wind being too unreliable to supply all our needs? Who said it was going to in the first place?

It's obvious that our electricity will need to be supplied by a variety of sources - wind, wave, tide, solar and geo-thermal - in the future. Wind just happens to be one of the easiest, and cheapest, to harness.

But anyone who thinks that windfarms are being put forward as the sole answer to all our future needs is not a very serious person and should be kept in a safe place away from society. Windfarms are a major part of the solution. They have been proven to work. They are a big step forward, towards a renewable future.

There will be other sources, but it's about time we admitted that coal, oil and gas are on the way out and that nuclear just has too many dark secrets and unresolved issues to be safe.

What is so depressing is that, because some people feel the need to cling to the certainties of the past, and to deny that they played any part in the climate change crisis, they will spout no end of silly, stupid, illogical, irrational annd unscientific arguments against the solution.

Windfarms are a vital part of our future. There is no choice in the matter.

Get used to it.

CRIMINAL DAMAGE

Yet again, the poor, deluded fools of VVASP have had their ghastly yellow placards stolen or damaged.

Yes, would you believe it? All those self-satisfied people are doing is exercising their democratic right to plaster nasty-looking placards all over a picturesque village, and some unidentified rotters have retaliated.

Those placards cost a tenner each! They have been strategically placed to draw attention to their owners' dumbass views! How dare anybody vandalise these crappy, evil posters?! It's a disgrace!

(A more creative form of vandalism, which took place a few months back, saw photocopied images of the GI's raising Old Glory at Iwo Jima, only the flagpole had been replaced by a wind turbine, and the word 'YES' was prominent; these were stuck over the VVASP's grotty 'NO' efforts, much to the annoyance of the anti-windfarm lobby.)

According to VVASP, the police know who is responsible for removing the useless 'NO' placards. The police, however, have got far more important things to be getting on with than pandering to the pushy bastards who erected the stupid placards in the first place, and so no action has been taken (as yet).

Maybe the police have just got more taste than the bottom-feeders of VVASP. Certainly the wreckers of those dreadful placards have. Their actions have enhanced the visual appeal of the villages concerned enormously. Removing the placards is undoubtedly a positive act and shows a far greater sense of perspective and community than the protesters of Loony Lench have shown.

But you know what the middle-classes are like when it comes to their property. I don't think it's the ten quid that went down the drain with their shitty placard, I think it's the obvious fact that somebody disagrees with them which rankles so much. After all, only members of VVASP are allowed to have an opinion, right? And that opinion has to be forged by a constant stream of lies, misrepresentation and social/psychological pressure.

Well, good to see that some have slipped through the net and are still capable of rational, independent thought. Better still that they are exercising their superior intellect by ridding the villages of just a few of those godawful placards - the ones which try to make windpower look as hideous as nuclear power, but which only reveal the owners to be the dimwitted victims of a crude propaganda campaign.

So - three cheers (and a pint, should the opportunity ever arise) for the Merry Men who have, yet again, shown their wholly reasonable contempt for VVASP and their unsightly placards. After all, criminal damage is one thing. Climate change is another. Anything which attacks the mealy-mouthed gainsayers of climate change, the self-centred individuals who care more about the view from the corner of their garden than the planet as a whole, the spreaders of lies and the huffing, puffing bullies of VVASP can only be a Good Thing!