Do you believe that important planning decisions should not be taken hostage by a vociferous minority of self-centred nimbies?
Do you believe that the future for all of us matters more than the nimbies' short-term obsessions?
Do you want your voice to be heard by 10 Downing Street?
Then here's a petition you really should sign. Get everyone you know (who isn't an ignorant, arrogant, hypocritical nimby) to sign it. Let's make sure that the silent majority is properly represented in this most vital of matters.
Follow the link to find out more and to add your name to the list:
http://www.windenergyplanning.com/new-wind-energy-and-major-infrastructure-petition/
Remember: the nimby brigade does NOT represent the majority. They only misrepresent the facts. By signing the petition, you'll be adding your voice to the growing consensus. And you'll be doing a good thing.
Monday, 7 September 2009
DEMOCRACY IN PERIL
One of VVASP's most misleading claims is that they are 'Providing Information' to help the community make an 'Informed Decision' about the prospective Lenchwick Windfarm.
The reality is that every claim they have made about the windfarm simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It's either grossly inaccurate, deliberately misrepresented or downright hysterical.
Not bad for a group which claims to be 'Pro Renewables'!
In a rational world, they would be laughed at. But where windfarms are concerned, a lot of people have difficulty being rational. They're frightened of change. And so they're susceptible to misinformation. Even when that misinformation is alarmingly silly and quite obviously false.
Behind the VVASP campaign is a small group of individuals who simply don't want a windfarm near them because it doesn't fit in with their idea of what the countryside was when they bought themselves a house in it.
But in order to justify a stance that is, at best, rather short-sighted and retrogressive, the leaders of VVASP have been forced to drum up support by lying to people about windfarms.
What is so extraordinary is how so many people have let themselves down by choosing to believe VVASP's lunatic rubbish.
And this is where democracy suffers. Because it's one thing to have a vote, or to be able to have your say. It's quite another thing to exercise your vote on an enlightened basis.
If you are in full possession of the facts, then there's a chance that you'll vote intelligently. If, however, you're ignorant of the facts or - worse - you've been conned into believing a load of one-sided nonsense, then yours will be an unintelligent vote.
There can be no true democracy without education, without knowledge and awareness. And the truth is that VVASP exists to deny people knowledge and awareness. They're not remotely interested in helping you to understand the facts. How would that boost their cause?
No, they want you to believe all manner of stupid and ludicrous things about windfarms, because then you'll vote against the national interest, against the public good, against your own good, and against the needs of future generations.
You'll vote in a way that serves those self-serving knuckleheads of VVASP.
Only a day or two ago I heard a guy say, 'I've heard that windfarms don't work.'
What the hell was that statement supposed to mean? That windfarms just stand there doing nothing? That they only work a bit of the time?
Comparatively speaking, windfarms work spectacularly well - and they're improving all the time. The latest are pretty well noiseless. They recoup all their costs within months of going onstream, and then spend the best part of twenty-five years quietly and efficiently producing cheap, clean, green energy.
What kind of maniac believes that they 'don't work'?
Only one who's heard from a VVASP loon or one of their cohorts.
There was that poor deluded man who was told, early on, by people who were supposed to be his friends, that the windfarm would kill all the fish in his fishing lakes.
The people who told him that are shameless liars determined to exploit other people's uncertainties for their own ends. There wasn't an ounce of truth in what they told him, but it worked. He's now a leading figure in the anti-windfarm protest.
Another chap insists that windfarms are noisy. He has close friends whose holiday home is right next door to a windfarm, and other friends who have visited several windfarms in the UK. But he doesn't want to hear from people who actually know how quiet windfarms are. He was suckered by the two-faced weirdos of VVASP. So now he believes in something that is demonstrably, patently untrue.
He fell into VVASP's trap. They're not informing people. They're misinforming people. They don't want you to make an informed decision (because then you'd probably support the windfarm). They want you to make a misinformed decision.
Nimby groups are continually using these shabby tactics to force their dangerously out-of-touch views on the locals. Having whipped up enough muddle-headed opposition, they then harrass local councillors into defying the advice of professional planning officers and turning down windfarm applications.
And the UK continues to drift backwards.
This kind of self-serving, anti-social activity must stop. VVASP are betraying us all for their own petty reasons. Anyone who listens to their lies and makes a decision based on them is making a fool of themselves.
The truth is out there. And the truth is:
THERE ARE NO VALID, LEGITIMATE REASONS FOR OPPOSING THE WINDFARM.
Any 'reason' VVASP gives you is based on a lie.
The reality is that every claim they have made about the windfarm simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It's either grossly inaccurate, deliberately misrepresented or downright hysterical.
Not bad for a group which claims to be 'Pro Renewables'!
In a rational world, they would be laughed at. But where windfarms are concerned, a lot of people have difficulty being rational. They're frightened of change. And so they're susceptible to misinformation. Even when that misinformation is alarmingly silly and quite obviously false.
Behind the VVASP campaign is a small group of individuals who simply don't want a windfarm near them because it doesn't fit in with their idea of what the countryside was when they bought themselves a house in it.
But in order to justify a stance that is, at best, rather short-sighted and retrogressive, the leaders of VVASP have been forced to drum up support by lying to people about windfarms.
What is so extraordinary is how so many people have let themselves down by choosing to believe VVASP's lunatic rubbish.
And this is where democracy suffers. Because it's one thing to have a vote, or to be able to have your say. It's quite another thing to exercise your vote on an enlightened basis.
If you are in full possession of the facts, then there's a chance that you'll vote intelligently. If, however, you're ignorant of the facts or - worse - you've been conned into believing a load of one-sided nonsense, then yours will be an unintelligent vote.
There can be no true democracy without education, without knowledge and awareness. And the truth is that VVASP exists to deny people knowledge and awareness. They're not remotely interested in helping you to understand the facts. How would that boost their cause?
No, they want you to believe all manner of stupid and ludicrous things about windfarms, because then you'll vote against the national interest, against the public good, against your own good, and against the needs of future generations.
You'll vote in a way that serves those self-serving knuckleheads of VVASP.
Only a day or two ago I heard a guy say, 'I've heard that windfarms don't work.'
What the hell was that statement supposed to mean? That windfarms just stand there doing nothing? That they only work a bit of the time?
Comparatively speaking, windfarms work spectacularly well - and they're improving all the time. The latest are pretty well noiseless. They recoup all their costs within months of going onstream, and then spend the best part of twenty-five years quietly and efficiently producing cheap, clean, green energy.
What kind of maniac believes that they 'don't work'?
Only one who's heard from a VVASP loon or one of their cohorts.
There was that poor deluded man who was told, early on, by people who were supposed to be his friends, that the windfarm would kill all the fish in his fishing lakes.
The people who told him that are shameless liars determined to exploit other people's uncertainties for their own ends. There wasn't an ounce of truth in what they told him, but it worked. He's now a leading figure in the anti-windfarm protest.
Another chap insists that windfarms are noisy. He has close friends whose holiday home is right next door to a windfarm, and other friends who have visited several windfarms in the UK. But he doesn't want to hear from people who actually know how quiet windfarms are. He was suckered by the two-faced weirdos of VVASP. So now he believes in something that is demonstrably, patently untrue.
He fell into VVASP's trap. They're not informing people. They're misinforming people. They don't want you to make an informed decision (because then you'd probably support the windfarm). They want you to make a misinformed decision.
Nimby groups are continually using these shabby tactics to force their dangerously out-of-touch views on the locals. Having whipped up enough muddle-headed opposition, they then harrass local councillors into defying the advice of professional planning officers and turning down windfarm applications.
And the UK continues to drift backwards.
This kind of self-serving, anti-social activity must stop. VVASP are betraying us all for their own petty reasons. Anyone who listens to their lies and makes a decision based on them is making a fool of themselves.
The truth is out there. And the truth is:
THERE ARE NO VALID, LEGITIMATE REASONS FOR OPPOSING THE WINDFARM.
Any 'reason' VVASP gives you is based on a lie.
Friday, 4 September 2009
HOW COOL IS NUCLEAR?
This summer, France was forced to import energy from the UK.
Why?
Because as temperatures across France rose to 30 degrees plus, their nuclear power plants started producing less and less electricity. For safety reasons, several were shut down.
France gets around 80% of its electricity from 19 nuclear power stations. 14 of these are inland and rely on river water to act as a coolant.
But for the second time in a decade, temperatures rose to the point that it was no longer safe to use the river water for such a purpose.
The consequence - France could not supply enough of its own electricity. And Paris was effectively powered by the UK.
Now, being the fanatical 'Pro-Renewables' campaign group that they claim to be, Vale Villagers Against Scottish Power (VVASP) protest endlessly against renewables and seem to be of the opinion that nuclear power is the answer to all our problems. Of course, they'd soon change their tune if anyone suggested building a nuclear power station in the Lenches. But consistency was never VVASP's strong point.
With global temperatures rising, countries which rely on nuclear energy are going too find themselves compromised, as France was this summer. Rising sea levels will spell disaster for coastal power plants, and inland power plants will face much the same problems as France did.
What is more, nuclear energy is incredibly expensive. A new study from the US reveals that 'new nuclear energy is on track to cost 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour' ('Time' magazine), which is three times the current US electricity rate and doesn't account for the fact that no nuclear power station has ever been completed on budget.
That's no doubt why the US is increasingly moving towards wind power.
As is the rest of the world.
The UK gets 40% of Europe's wind, and yet we're lagging well behind the rest of Europe in the development of renewable wind energy. Why is that? Because of self-serving nimbies and their ill-informed supporters. Anti-renewable campaign groups like VVASP are holding Britain back by spreading lies and misinformation and putting their own petty-minded concerns ahead of the attractive and cost effective answer to a looming crisis.
John Prescott has slammed 'nimby' councils for opposing windfarms. In fact, it's usually the case that hordes of red-faced nimbies employ barefaced lies and naked aggression in order to force councils to take the wrong decision. We cannot allow that to happen here.
The RSPB, National Trust and CPRE have called for an increase in the number of windfarms in the UK and an end to the ridiculous planning delays caused solely by nimbies lying about them.
The nuclear option is NOT a real option. It's hideously expensive and dangerous. Ask any scientist how the radioactive waste from our existing power stations is going to be protected for the next few hundred thousand years. They don't know.
Those who advance nuclear power as being more reliable and cheaper than wind power are having you on. They're wrong on both counts.
Wind power is safe, clean, cheap and endlessly renewable. The environmental impact is negligible. There is no waste. Windfarms attract tourists. Sensible people like them.
Why?
Because as temperatures across France rose to 30 degrees plus, their nuclear power plants started producing less and less electricity. For safety reasons, several were shut down.
France gets around 80% of its electricity from 19 nuclear power stations. 14 of these are inland and rely on river water to act as a coolant.
But for the second time in a decade, temperatures rose to the point that it was no longer safe to use the river water for such a purpose.
The consequence - France could not supply enough of its own electricity. And Paris was effectively powered by the UK.
Now, being the fanatical 'Pro-Renewables' campaign group that they claim to be, Vale Villagers Against Scottish Power (VVASP) protest endlessly against renewables and seem to be of the opinion that nuclear power is the answer to all our problems. Of course, they'd soon change their tune if anyone suggested building a nuclear power station in the Lenches. But consistency was never VVASP's strong point.
With global temperatures rising, countries which rely on nuclear energy are going too find themselves compromised, as France was this summer. Rising sea levels will spell disaster for coastal power plants, and inland power plants will face much the same problems as France did.
What is more, nuclear energy is incredibly expensive. A new study from the US reveals that 'new nuclear energy is on track to cost 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour' ('Time' magazine), which is three times the current US electricity rate and doesn't account for the fact that no nuclear power station has ever been completed on budget.
That's no doubt why the US is increasingly moving towards wind power.
As is the rest of the world.
The UK gets 40% of Europe's wind, and yet we're lagging well behind the rest of Europe in the development of renewable wind energy. Why is that? Because of self-serving nimbies and their ill-informed supporters. Anti-renewable campaign groups like VVASP are holding Britain back by spreading lies and misinformation and putting their own petty-minded concerns ahead of the attractive and cost effective answer to a looming crisis.
John Prescott has slammed 'nimby' councils for opposing windfarms. In fact, it's usually the case that hordes of red-faced nimbies employ barefaced lies and naked aggression in order to force councils to take the wrong decision. We cannot allow that to happen here.
The RSPB, National Trust and CPRE have called for an increase in the number of windfarms in the UK and an end to the ridiculous planning delays caused solely by nimbies lying about them.
The nuclear option is NOT a real option. It's hideously expensive and dangerous. Ask any scientist how the radioactive waste from our existing power stations is going to be protected for the next few hundred thousand years. They don't know.
Those who advance nuclear power as being more reliable and cheaper than wind power are having you on. They're wrong on both counts.
Wind power is safe, clean, cheap and endlessly renewable. The environmental impact is negligible. There is no waste. Windfarms attract tourists. Sensible people like them.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
TRUE OR FALSE?
"The construction of a wind farm has a negative effect on house prices in the area."
True or false?
Answer: FALSE.
In May 2003, the Renewable Energy Policy Project in the US published an 81-page report concerning property values in the neighbourhood of windfarms.
Examining every major windfarm development in the US between 1998 and 2002, the report examined some 25,000 property transactions before and after the ten major windfarms were constructed.
What the report revealed was that, in eight out of ten of the cases studied, property values within a five mile radius of a windfarm actually INCREASED faster than in the wider community. In nine out of ten of the cases studied, those property prices ROSE after the windfarms had come online.
In April 2006, the Bard Centre for Environmental Policy in New York published another survey detailing the impact of windfarm visibility on property values in Madison County, NY. The study found an 'absence of measurable effects of windfarm visibility on property transaction values.' In other words, the proximity of a windfarm had no impact on house prices.
Then came the survey that the nimbies want you to know about.
Oxford Brookes University examined 919 property transactions near three windfarms in Cornwall and found that the values of terraced houses close to the windfarms were lower than they would be further away.
But then the researchers spoke to estate agents in the area and found that the nearer terraced houses were in fact ex-Ministry of Defence properties and were considered less desirable - that is, those terraced houses were already cheaper than others, irrespective of the nearby windfarm.
Naturally, the nimbies won't tell you that the Oxford Brookes University study, published in 2007, revealed that certain properties close to Cornish windfarms were cheaper because, well, they were cheaper anyway.
No - those practised misleaders of the public, like VVASP, only want to shock you with a non-representative survey which didn't even conclude what they want you to think it did.
I bet that the nimby brigade don't want you to know that the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors found no detrimental impact on house prices as a result of windfarm developments.
So - all the evidence suggests that house prices are not affected by windfarms, and if anything they tend to go UP when a windfarm is nearby.
Those are the facts. Forget the nonsense spun by the nimbies. They're not giving you the full story. In fact, they're lying, as always.
What is more, local evidence indicates that people are eager to move into the Lenches BECAUSE of the proposed windfarm.
The reality is that house prices will not be adversely effected. They might even go up faster than the average. And a better class of person will move into the area.
So what's not to like?
True or false?
Answer: FALSE.
In May 2003, the Renewable Energy Policy Project in the US published an 81-page report concerning property values in the neighbourhood of windfarms.
Examining every major windfarm development in the US between 1998 and 2002, the report examined some 25,000 property transactions before and after the ten major windfarms were constructed.
What the report revealed was that, in eight out of ten of the cases studied, property values within a five mile radius of a windfarm actually INCREASED faster than in the wider community. In nine out of ten of the cases studied, those property prices ROSE after the windfarms had come online.
In April 2006, the Bard Centre for Environmental Policy in New York published another survey detailing the impact of windfarm visibility on property values in Madison County, NY. The study found an 'absence of measurable effects of windfarm visibility on property transaction values.' In other words, the proximity of a windfarm had no impact on house prices.
Then came the survey that the nimbies want you to know about.
Oxford Brookes University examined 919 property transactions near three windfarms in Cornwall and found that the values of terraced houses close to the windfarms were lower than they would be further away.
But then the researchers spoke to estate agents in the area and found that the nearer terraced houses were in fact ex-Ministry of Defence properties and were considered less desirable - that is, those terraced houses were already cheaper than others, irrespective of the nearby windfarm.
Naturally, the nimbies won't tell you that the Oxford Brookes University study, published in 2007, revealed that certain properties close to Cornish windfarms were cheaper because, well, they were cheaper anyway.
No - those practised misleaders of the public, like VVASP, only want to shock you with a non-representative survey which didn't even conclude what they want you to think it did.
I bet that the nimby brigade don't want you to know that the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors found no detrimental impact on house prices as a result of windfarm developments.
So - all the evidence suggests that house prices are not affected by windfarms, and if anything they tend to go UP when a windfarm is nearby.
Those are the facts. Forget the nonsense spun by the nimbies. They're not giving you the full story. In fact, they're lying, as always.
What is more, local evidence indicates that people are eager to move into the Lenches BECAUSE of the proposed windfarm.
The reality is that house prices will not be adversely effected. They might even go up faster than the average. And a better class of person will move into the area.
So what's not to like?
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
UPDATE ON YOUR MONEY
When the chair of Church Lench Parish Council told residents in an unprecendented 'annual report' that the Windfarm Working Party had secured funds from the neighbouring parish councils to pay for 'legal representation', he wasn't telling the full story.
The Working Party has solicited £750 from each of the neighbouring parish councils, with Church Lench PC acting as the 'lead' council. Six councils contributing £750 each out of their precepts equals a fighting fund of £4,500.
Between £2,500 and £3,000 of that money has been earmarked by Church Lench PC for 'legal representation costs' specifically towards the Environmental Impact Statement, a document based on numerous surveys which will be submitted by ScottishPower Renewables along with the planning application.
Quite what legal costs Church Lench and the neighbouring parish councils expect to incur with regard to this document are unclear. But more of that anon.
The rest of the Working Party's funding is designated for 'Contracting of noise measuring equipment', the approximate cost of which is £2,500.
With just £4,500 of public money to play with, Church Lench PC would not be able to afford to do both. Fortunately, though, £1,000 of the costs of the noise measuring equipment is to be 'donated by other parties'.
What other parties?
Who else would be interested in contributing £1,000 towards the costs of a superfluous background noise level survey?
Not VVASP. No, surely not!
But I think we need to be told who these 'other parties' are. Who is joining forces with the Windfarm Working Party, an initiative of the rabidly anti-windfarm Church Lench parish councillors, to pay for a background noise survey in the hope that it'll produce a slightly different result from that measured by ScottishPower Renewables?
If - I repeat, if - the balance is coming from VVASP, then it's obvious, isn't it? Church Lench PC, under the guise of its Windfarm Working Party, is actively looking for ways of opposing the windfarm planning application before that application has even been submitted. Rather than approaching the planning application in the unbiased, impartial manner required of parish councils, Church Lench has already made up its mind.
Hence, surely, the need for 'legal representation' regarding the Environmental Impact Statement. Again, Church Lench are using YOUR money in order to find fault with the EIS, or maybe to present their own version of the EIS using the data they've cobbled together, again using YOUR money, via their half-baked noise monitoring survey.
For some reason, the chair of Church Lench PC didn't feel that the local residents needed to know this. It's council tax-payers' money that is being misused here on a political campaign, but you don't need to know about that.
By demonstrating a gross inability to approach this issue impartially, Church Lench PC is running a very real risk of having its objections (which YOU paid for) disallowed by Wychavon District Council's planning committee. And by dragging the other parish councils into its biased and underhand way of doing things, Church Lench is also imperilling any objections they may wish to make to the proposals.
All this smacks of a concerted campaign to supplement VVASP's funds with public money by a parish council which is composed entirely of opponents to the windfarm. Which means, essentially, that tax-payers are funding VVASP.
Even if, like many others in the area, you support the Lenchwick Windfarm, you're paying for a bunch of ignorant nimbies to fight it on the flimsiest of grounds.
Unless Church Lench PC or its 'Windfarm Working Party' smokescreen are prepared to declare who these 'other parties' are who will be donating £1,000 to the pointless background noise monitoring survey, then we can only assume that Church Lench PC is in cahoots with VVASP and using tax payers' money to do VVASP's dirty work.
Let's hope that the District Council is keeping tabs on this travesty of local democracy.
The Working Party has solicited £750 from each of the neighbouring parish councils, with Church Lench PC acting as the 'lead' council. Six councils contributing £750 each out of their precepts equals a fighting fund of £4,500.
Between £2,500 and £3,000 of that money has been earmarked by Church Lench PC for 'legal representation costs' specifically towards the Environmental Impact Statement, a document based on numerous surveys which will be submitted by ScottishPower Renewables along with the planning application.
Quite what legal costs Church Lench and the neighbouring parish councils expect to incur with regard to this document are unclear. But more of that anon.
The rest of the Working Party's funding is designated for 'Contracting of noise measuring equipment', the approximate cost of which is £2,500.
With just £4,500 of public money to play with, Church Lench PC would not be able to afford to do both. Fortunately, though, £1,000 of the costs of the noise measuring equipment is to be 'donated by other parties'.
What other parties?
Who else would be interested in contributing £1,000 towards the costs of a superfluous background noise level survey?
Not VVASP. No, surely not!
But I think we need to be told who these 'other parties' are. Who is joining forces with the Windfarm Working Party, an initiative of the rabidly anti-windfarm Church Lench parish councillors, to pay for a background noise survey in the hope that it'll produce a slightly different result from that measured by ScottishPower Renewables?
If - I repeat, if - the balance is coming from VVASP, then it's obvious, isn't it? Church Lench PC, under the guise of its Windfarm Working Party, is actively looking for ways of opposing the windfarm planning application before that application has even been submitted. Rather than approaching the planning application in the unbiased, impartial manner required of parish councils, Church Lench has already made up its mind.
Hence, surely, the need for 'legal representation' regarding the Environmental Impact Statement. Again, Church Lench are using YOUR money in order to find fault with the EIS, or maybe to present their own version of the EIS using the data they've cobbled together, again using YOUR money, via their half-baked noise monitoring survey.
For some reason, the chair of Church Lench PC didn't feel that the local residents needed to know this. It's council tax-payers' money that is being misused here on a political campaign, but you don't need to know about that.
By demonstrating a gross inability to approach this issue impartially, Church Lench PC is running a very real risk of having its objections (which YOU paid for) disallowed by Wychavon District Council's planning committee. And by dragging the other parish councils into its biased and underhand way of doing things, Church Lench is also imperilling any objections they may wish to make to the proposals.
All this smacks of a concerted campaign to supplement VVASP's funds with public money by a parish council which is composed entirely of opponents to the windfarm. Which means, essentially, that tax-payers are funding VVASP.
Even if, like many others in the area, you support the Lenchwick Windfarm, you're paying for a bunch of ignorant nimbies to fight it on the flimsiest of grounds.
Unless Church Lench PC or its 'Windfarm Working Party' smokescreen are prepared to declare who these 'other parties' are who will be donating £1,000 to the pointless background noise monitoring survey, then we can only assume that Church Lench PC is in cahoots with VVASP and using tax payers' money to do VVASP's dirty work.
Let's hope that the District Council is keeping tabs on this travesty of local democracy.
NIMBY NONSENSE
Can you believe that VVASP once tried to pretend that they are not a protest group? Even though they have the word 'Against' in their name!
In actual fact, the grossly deluded nookie nimbies of VVASP are still trying to pass themselves off as something other than a single-issue anti-windfarm group.
The front page of their website claims that they are 'Pro Renewable Energy'. And how do they demonstrate their passion for renewables? By trying to stop them, that's how.
As a measure of how muddled and downright dishonest they are, their site goes on to claim that they are campaigning for the 'Appropriate Technology in the Appropriate Environment'. So, you see, they're not protesting against anything. Rather, they're campaigning for something. They're campaigning for somebody else to get a windfarm, and not themselves. They're campaigning in favour of renewables by lying their heads off about windfarms constantly. They're pressing for the 'Appropriate Technology' by making up lies about it.
Now, let's be clear. When faced with imminent climate catastrophe, there's no such thing as the 'Appropriate Environment'. There's just the Environment, otherwise known as Where We Live.
To pretend that the Environment is Somewhere Else is plain stupid. It also highlights the extent to which VVASP is lying to itself and to everyone else. The Environment is Here, There and Everywhere. It's not selective. You can't opt out of it. In the face of climate change, Everywhere is the Appropriate Environment.
But the reckless nimbies like to imagine that the Lenches are somehow an Inappropriate Environment for the Renewable Energy that they're so keep to champion.
Okay, let's think about this. 40 per cent of Europe's wind passes over the UK. The prevailing winds are south-westerly. Wind blows up the Severn Vale and then hits - what? A small group of hills called the Lenches.
So, in other words, the Lenches are the ideal place to site a windfarm. It'll be a rare day when the wind isn't blowing at 100-odd metres above the Lenches. It's the perfect place to harness abundant wind energy, a free and endlessly renewable resource.
But in their eagerness to campaign for renewables, the barefaced liars of VVASP want us all to think that the Lenches is entirely the wrong environment for a windfarm.
Why?
Because they're selfish, self-centred, arrogant, ignorant and foolish, that's why.
If they really are in favour of renewable energy, they should rejoice at the fact that our area has been chosen as the site for a potential windfarm.
But they're not campaigning FOR renewables, no matter how much they may want to mislead themselves and you.
And that stuff about the 'Appropriate Technology in the Appropriate Environment' is just self-deluded, self-serving poppycock. It's a totally meaningless and deliberately misleading piece of nonsense.
The Environment is the Environment. There aren't two different kinds of the Environment, depending on whether you've got a bit of money or not.
VVASP can lie to themselves, but they can't lie to us. They are a protest group dedicated to fighting against something which the environment desperately needs, something which will do no harm to the local area but will only enhance it.
The Appropriate Technology is clean, green, renewable wind energy. The Appropriate Environment is here.
Don't let VVASP tell you that they're actually campaigning for something. They're just nimbies, pure and simple.
In actual fact, the grossly deluded nookie nimbies of VVASP are still trying to pass themselves off as something other than a single-issue anti-windfarm group.
The front page of their website claims that they are 'Pro Renewable Energy'. And how do they demonstrate their passion for renewables? By trying to stop them, that's how.
As a measure of how muddled and downright dishonest they are, their site goes on to claim that they are campaigning for the 'Appropriate Technology in the Appropriate Environment'. So, you see, they're not protesting against anything. Rather, they're campaigning for something. They're campaigning for somebody else to get a windfarm, and not themselves. They're campaigning in favour of renewables by lying their heads off about windfarms constantly. They're pressing for the 'Appropriate Technology' by making up lies about it.
Now, let's be clear. When faced with imminent climate catastrophe, there's no such thing as the 'Appropriate Environment'. There's just the Environment, otherwise known as Where We Live.
To pretend that the Environment is Somewhere Else is plain stupid. It also highlights the extent to which VVASP is lying to itself and to everyone else. The Environment is Here, There and Everywhere. It's not selective. You can't opt out of it. In the face of climate change, Everywhere is the Appropriate Environment.
But the reckless nimbies like to imagine that the Lenches are somehow an Inappropriate Environment for the Renewable Energy that they're so keep to champion.
Okay, let's think about this. 40 per cent of Europe's wind passes over the UK. The prevailing winds are south-westerly. Wind blows up the Severn Vale and then hits - what? A small group of hills called the Lenches.
So, in other words, the Lenches are the ideal place to site a windfarm. It'll be a rare day when the wind isn't blowing at 100-odd metres above the Lenches. It's the perfect place to harness abundant wind energy, a free and endlessly renewable resource.
But in their eagerness to campaign for renewables, the barefaced liars of VVASP want us all to think that the Lenches is entirely the wrong environment for a windfarm.
Why?
Because they're selfish, self-centred, arrogant, ignorant and foolish, that's why.
If they really are in favour of renewable energy, they should rejoice at the fact that our area has been chosen as the site for a potential windfarm.
But they're not campaigning FOR renewables, no matter how much they may want to mislead themselves and you.
And that stuff about the 'Appropriate Technology in the Appropriate Environment' is just self-deluded, self-serving poppycock. It's a totally meaningless and deliberately misleading piece of nonsense.
The Environment is the Environment. There aren't two different kinds of the Environment, depending on whether you've got a bit of money or not.
VVASP can lie to themselves, but they can't lie to us. They are a protest group dedicated to fighting against something which the environment desperately needs, something which will do no harm to the local area but will only enhance it.
The Appropriate Technology is clean, green, renewable wind energy. The Appropriate Environment is here.
Don't let VVASP tell you that they're actually campaigning for something. They're just nimbies, pure and simple.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
WHO REALLY CARES
I was talking today to a genuine local, born and bred in the area, of good farming stock.
In other words, not one of those nimbies who made a bit of money and moved to the countryside, but a real nth-generation local.
This particular person was hugely in favour of the windfarm. For the sake of future generations.
This same person has seen, in recent years, a massive influx of new people - those who've bought their little home in the country, but who have no idea at all about how the countryside works.
These are people who think that the countryside is just scenery. They resent farmers, with their dirt and machinery and noisy animals. They complain when the farming community gets on with the work that they and their forefathers have been doing since the year dot.
These maniacs - for there can be no other word for them - genuinely seem to think that the countryside belongs to them. It doesn't seem to occur to them ever that the countryside is a working environment, or that food has to be cultivated. Simply because they could afford to buy a house in a pretty rural area, they think that all farming should stop, that the land should lie idle, not doing anything, being pretty and peaceful and thoroughly unproductive ...
BECAUSE THAT'S THE IMAGE THEY HAVE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE.
Of course, these same immigrants are campaigning to stop the Lenchwick Windfarm. It doesn't fit in with their rather crazy idea of what happens in the country.
It's been a tragedy, watching this rural area change as more and more people move out to the country from the cities and try to change what the countryside is to suit their ignorant ideas.
And it's telling that so many genuine locals - longterm inhabitants, and the farming community - support the windfarm.
It also makes you wonder who really does care about the countryside. The immigrants, who want to stop farming and any other productive activity which spoils their idea of what the countryside should be? Or the natives, who know that if the land isn't working, then there isn't really a point to it?
When the lunatic nimbies of VVASP make stupid claims like the windfarm will 'kill the countryside', what are they really saying?
They don't actually mean that the windfarm will kill the countryside, because you'd have to be absolutely off your rocker to believe that.
What they mean is, the windfarm will spoil their silly idea of the countryside as a little green haven exclusively for the pleasure of people like them.
The genuine locals know for sure that the windfarm will not kill the countryside. It'll provide some income for local farmers and landowners, without preventing them from pursuing their regular farming activities around the turbines. It'll also encourage tourism - elsewhere in the country, windfarms have proven to be tourist attractions. And, of course, it'll mean that the land is being used for what it's there for - producing stuff (in this case, clean, green, renewable energy).
But the immigrants hate all that. They want their dimwit notion of THEIR countryside, a dead, silent, empty place for their own exclusive use, to prevail. They don't want others enjoying it, and they certainly don't want the traditional custodians of the countryside to make a living from it.
It is the nimby brigade, the cretinous nookies of VVASP and their selfish counterparts across the country, who are doing their utmost to kill the countryside.
The windfarm will only breathe life into a rural scene which is being systematically ruined by the morons who oppose windfarms.
Who knows best, then? The newcomers, or the genuine locals?
In other words, not one of those nimbies who made a bit of money and moved to the countryside, but a real nth-generation local.
This particular person was hugely in favour of the windfarm. For the sake of future generations.
This same person has seen, in recent years, a massive influx of new people - those who've bought their little home in the country, but who have no idea at all about how the countryside works.
These are people who think that the countryside is just scenery. They resent farmers, with their dirt and machinery and noisy animals. They complain when the farming community gets on with the work that they and their forefathers have been doing since the year dot.
These maniacs - for there can be no other word for them - genuinely seem to think that the countryside belongs to them. It doesn't seem to occur to them ever that the countryside is a working environment, or that food has to be cultivated. Simply because they could afford to buy a house in a pretty rural area, they think that all farming should stop, that the land should lie idle, not doing anything, being pretty and peaceful and thoroughly unproductive ...
BECAUSE THAT'S THE IMAGE THEY HAVE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE.
Of course, these same immigrants are campaigning to stop the Lenchwick Windfarm. It doesn't fit in with their rather crazy idea of what happens in the country.
It's been a tragedy, watching this rural area change as more and more people move out to the country from the cities and try to change what the countryside is to suit their ignorant ideas.
And it's telling that so many genuine locals - longterm inhabitants, and the farming community - support the windfarm.
It also makes you wonder who really does care about the countryside. The immigrants, who want to stop farming and any other productive activity which spoils their idea of what the countryside should be? Or the natives, who know that if the land isn't working, then there isn't really a point to it?
When the lunatic nimbies of VVASP make stupid claims like the windfarm will 'kill the countryside', what are they really saying?
They don't actually mean that the windfarm will kill the countryside, because you'd have to be absolutely off your rocker to believe that.
What they mean is, the windfarm will spoil their silly idea of the countryside as a little green haven exclusively for the pleasure of people like them.
The genuine locals know for sure that the windfarm will not kill the countryside. It'll provide some income for local farmers and landowners, without preventing them from pursuing their regular farming activities around the turbines. It'll also encourage tourism - elsewhere in the country, windfarms have proven to be tourist attractions. And, of course, it'll mean that the land is being used for what it's there for - producing stuff (in this case, clean, green, renewable energy).
But the immigrants hate all that. They want their dimwit notion of THEIR countryside, a dead, silent, empty place for their own exclusive use, to prevail. They don't want others enjoying it, and they certainly don't want the traditional custodians of the countryside to make a living from it.
It is the nimby brigade, the cretinous nookies of VVASP and their selfish counterparts across the country, who are doing their utmost to kill the countryside.
The windfarm will only breathe life into a rural scene which is being systematically ruined by the morons who oppose windfarms.
Who knows best, then? The newcomers, or the genuine locals?
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