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'.
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Thursday, 16 July 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
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!!
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!!
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
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.
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.
Monday, 13 July 2009
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
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
Sunday, 12 July 2009
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!!!
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!!!
Saturday, 11 July 2009
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.
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.
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