June 20, 2014
England

Turbine fight rumbles on

By Martin Neville | Isle of Wight County Press Online | June 20, 2014 | www.iwcp.co.uk

The company behind plans for two giant wind turbines on Ministry of Justice (MoJ) land at Parkhurst Forest stands to make up to £26 million from the scheme, it was claimed this week.

Island MP Andrew Turner said he had been advised by Prisons Minister Jeremy Wright that if the controversial plan went ahead, each turbine would have the potential to earn the developer, Partnerships for Renewables (PfR), up to £13m over 20 years.

The minister said this meant early termination of the lease was ‘unlikely to come cheaply’.

Local resident Dr John Yelland said: “It’s quite a challenge to find where that huge sum of money would go, with PfR’s complex web of over 40 subsidiaries and holding companies, and with venture capitalist and foreign investment funds as major shareholders.

“We do know PfR’s average salary has been over £60,000 and the chief executive has been paid more than the Prime Minister; not bad for a company of 30 or so employees. We also know where most of the money comes from; it’s from us, all UK taxpayers and electricity consumers.”

Mr Turner said Mr Wright had also confirmed PfR had apologised for using the MoJ logo in a newsletter in July last year, and they had been instructed not to use it.

This week the logo was finally removed from PfR’s website after the County Press contacted them for a comment.

A PfR spokesman said: “PfR has always been entirely open about the nature of its relationship with the MoJ and has never sought to misrepresent that relationship.

“We had inadvertently retained the MoJ and IW Prison logos on an old Camp Hill project web page. These have now been removed and we have apologised to the MoJ for the oversight.”

He said the development represented a £6 million investment in renewable energy on the Island, with Vestas the intended turbine supplier.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/06/20/turbine-fight-rumbles-on/