Waubra Foundation ignores call to change its name 

A request to anti-wind farm lobby group Waubra Foundation to remove the town’s name from its title has been ignored.

A 316-signature petition, including 179 local residents, was presented to the group on November 7 but no formal response was received.

Waubra resident Karen Molloy said a deadline of last Tuesday had been set for a reply.

“The Waubra community is passionate to have our name back and we’re very determined to see this process through,” Ms Molloy said.

“After such a groundswell of support from the Waubra community, we’re disappointed at the lack of a formal response from the foundation to our request.

“People in the town have been asking how the petition is going and whether we’ve had any success getting our name back. We’ve even found more people who wanted to sign the petition.”

The Waubra Foundation is a national organisation conducting research into health problems identified by residents living near wind turbines.

Chief executive officer Sarah Laurie said the foundation is yet to receive the petition, but has been informed there is a registered mail item awaiting collection.

She said the board will carefully consider the petition at its next board meeting in the second week of December.

“The board will, in particular, be paying attention to the wishes of the people for whom the foundation was established – those whose health and sleep has been damaged by uncontrolled noise pollution from the Waubra Wind development,” Ms Laurie said.

“Those people have told us without exception that they wish us to keep the name. They also want the noise pollution and ongoing non-compliance issues addressed.”

Ms Laurie also said the petitioners’ attention and energy could, in the meantime, be focused on putting pressure on the Planning Minister to address the non-compliance issues.”

An article on the Waubra Foundation’s website refers to The Courier’s original story on November 6 titled “Hands Off Our Town” in which the petition was announced, with residents saying they did not wish to enter into the health effects debate but just wanted their name back.

On the website, the foundation’s article reads: “In an article in the Ballarat Courier on 6th November, 2013, some members of the Waubra community have acknowledged that some members of the local community have experienced health problems since the wind turbines commenced operating, and expressed sympathy for their situation. The Waubra Foundation welcomes this extremely positive development and public acknowledgement of the existence of a problem for some local residents, by members of the Waubra community.”

There is no reference in the Waubra Foundation’s article to the petition.

The 10-member residents group who collected the petition met this week to discuss their future options.

Resident Margaret McDonald said she hoped the directors acknowledge the community’s strong concerns about the damage being done to the town’s name.

“We hope the foundation will respect the community’s wishes and drop our name from its title,” Ms McDonald said.