UKIP North Dorset Constituency Chairman John Baxter and I turned up on Friday to the public meeting about the Silton wind farm proposals at Bourton School.
A very impressive turn out, and not the first. There must have been between 250-300 at Bourton and on Wednesday evening a similar number turned up in Milton on Stour.
Given that the first anybody knew about the proposal was a couple of weeks ago when some people were approached to affix noise monitors on their buildings. Of course nobody was told why, but after asking the question it had become clear. Ecotricity (or Eco trickery as it was dubbed at the meeting to load applause were back).
In 2003 the firm, wholly owned by the former traveller Dale Vince, had lost its attempt to put two turbines up in Cucklington a mere couple of miles away. Now they were back with a vengeance.
They want 6 and they are to be as tall as Salisbury cathedral. And they have been clever, by moving to Silton from Cucklington they cross the county border from Somerset to Dorset and therefore opponents will have to start all over again. Of course the fact he is trying to build 6 goes against his own beliefs. Here he is interviewed in the Guardian,
“We only deal in small projects of two to three turbines and ensure the local community are comfortable with the scheme”.
But his attitude to local people is better explained when he says,
“You can’t be in wind without having problems with planning. On-shore schemes are in the hands of local councillors, who don’t read the details of applications, don’t understand government policies and cave in to local pressure groups,”
What does he mean by this, who are these disreputable local pressure groups that he dismisses? The local people of course.
The meeting was addressed by Campbell Dunford, Chairman of the Renewable Energy Foundation, who was involved in the successful Save the Vale campaign. Mr Dunford gave a very good overview of the utter inappropriateness of wind energy and the way in which it is the most inefficient and highly subsidised form of energy yet online.
As he put it wind farms are a form of “Socialist post-imperial grandeur… There is little point making a sacrifice which is absolutely futile”.
Building wind farms in the light of all the meteorological and economic evidence is as much use as putting, “go-faster stripes on the side of my car”.
Quite.
Gillingham Town Council will be discussing the ‘scoping’ document for this proposal tonight. UKIP North Dorset will report on further developments.
Posted by Elaib Harvey
UK Independence Party North Dorset Blog
11 February 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/02/11/bourton-wind-farm-meeting/