February 11, 2013
Wales

Refusal of tickets over club’s Swansea wind farm move

February 11, 2013 | By Chris Peregrine | South Wales Evening Post | www.thisissouthwales.co.uk

A leading opponent of the controversial wind farm scheme on the outskirts of Swansea is snubbing the Ospreys as a result of their support for the application.

Councillor Ioan Richard said he will now not take up five match tickets he has been allocated to reward people from his ward who have done good in the community.

The Mawr member said he would struggle to get anyone to take them in the light of the Ospreys’ support for the scheme in his ward on Mynydd y Gwair.

Swansea Council narrowly voted last Thursday to approve the application by energy firm RWE to site 16 127 metre high turbines.

Four days later, feelings are still running high in the community, with much of Mr Richard’s anger directed at the Ospreys, whose main sponsor is RWE, npower renewables.

Last year’s Lord Mayor of Swansea said there was anger and astonishment at the region’s chief operations officer Andrew Hore’s submission to council supporting the application.

And he repeated his call in the aftermath of the decision for people from the region to snub them in favour of local rivals the Scarlets.

“If you are lucky your name comes out in a members’ draw and you get five tickets for an Ospreys match to reward people from your ward who have done good in the community,” said Mr Richard. “My name came up for the match against the Dragons on March 22. I haven’t had the tickets but I have already told the council I don’t want them.

“I don’t want to embarrass myself by offering them to people from the ward. They would probably push me in the river if I did. Everyone was disgusted by the Ospreys’ involvement in the application.

“I was gobsmacked that they were there. It came out of the blue.

“I would encourage people to follow the Scarlets. It was totally unbelievable that they were there supporting the application.

“It is a bad move for them to get involved in politics and planning issues. Will it count against them in future? I hope so.”

The Ospreys declined an invitation to comment.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/02/11/refusal-of-tickets-over-clubs-swansea-wind-farm-move/