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PS – 61:

19-Sep-2015
(PS-61: A Perverse Planning Decision & Poor Reporting re: Turbine)

19-Aug-2015

A WIND turbine – which supporters claim could plough at least £500,000 back into the community over the next 25 years – has been given the green light by Forest councillors.

Around 60 campaigners turned up at the Forest of Dean District Council offices, in Coleford, to support the application at Severndale Farm in Tidenham.

The application for Resilient Energy’s third community-scale wind turbine in the district was recommended for refusal by planning officers who claimed it would have ‘significant adverse impacts’ on the landscape.

The decision was given the go-ahead by 10 to three and one abstention.

The application has been controversial with some residents opposing the turbine and an online campaign particularly on the grounds of noise and visual intrusion.

The Forest council say while they are keen to support any initiatives that help the environment and are good for the community, each will be considered on its own merits and must comply with national and our local planning policy.

Janine Michael, from Dean Community Energy group, said: “We are pleased councillors recognise the community benefits this scheme will bring. This was a great example of democracy in action.”

The wind turbine is capable of generating an amount of energy which is the equivalent required for 275 homes. The energy generated is sold onto the national grid with any profits given back to the community.

Resilient Energy’s first wind turbine at Great Dunkilns Farm in St Briavels has been operating since January 2013, and has so far provided £25,000 to local causes. A second turbine at Alvington Court is expected to complete this autumn.

Director of the Resilience Centre, Andrew Clarke said: “The decision to give permission for the project is great news. We will now commence raising money from sale of shares in the project to the public. We expect the shares to return 7 per cent each year in interest to investors plus Enterprise Investment Tax relief from the UK Government which in effect pays you back for 30 per cent of the shares you buy via tax rebate. 

“We expect the money to be raised by end of 2015 and construction to start in spring 2016. Our Alvington Court turbine is set for completion next month.

“An independent community panel will decide how the money is distributed while any surplus monies will be decided by a board of directors.”

Applicants Green Energy were also given the nod for a commercial solar farm at Tump Farm, Sedbury on Friday by planning officer Mr Tony Pope.

Farmer Lyndon Edwards said he was pleased that councillors had backed the scheme and added that the turbine will be erected in the next 12 months.

To view the original article CLICK HERE

This article seems to be so riddled with inaccuracies, I believe it is worthy of fisking, to see if I can get to the truth. I believe it was written in good faith by the paper but without questioning any of the claims, in almost as naiive a manner as that seemingly adopted by the FoDDC planning committee councillors!

Let us see:

A WIND turbine – which supporters claim could plough at least £500,000 back into the community over the next 25 years – has been given the green light by Forest councillors.

Supporters have claimed that the 4% share of profits that will accrue to the community will be a sum between £500,000 and £1,000,000 – this is clearly imaginitive as that indicates, based upon the life expectancy of the installation and current figures show that to be between 10 and 12 years, the amount annually paid would be between £41,666 & £83,333 ( giving the benefit of the doubt of 12 year service!). That indicates an annual profit for the applicant of an unlikely £1,041,666 to £2,083,333.

The hypothetical/fantasy figures just do not measure with reality as the applicant’s agents resiliance have confirmed tyhat the sililar sized turbine in St. Briavels has only contributed £15,666 a year to date!

Minded that a single fatality on the A48, contributed to by this massive moving distraction and the increased traffic will give a cost to the community at large of over £250,000 on todays figures, let alone the inflationary costs in 10 years time or a multiple fatality and injuries of a single accident in the next 10 years!

Even accepting the fancifull figures of the applicant, there is no enforcable contract for these sums which amount in fact to a mere £20,000 a year which in a community, even accepting Tidenham Parish to be the effected community -which it is not -, is very small beer! It amounts to less than £5 per household per annum! Whilst the applicants expect to make figures between £1 & £2 Million a year!

Around 60 campaigners turned up at the Forest of Dean District Council offices, in Coleford, to support the application at Severndale Farm in Tidenham.

Interestingly there is no mention of the fact that few of them seemed to be homeowners with a long term commitment to the community, nor is there mention of the obvious fact that their presence was organised by the applicant and many were from other areas, few if any were members ! Neither was there any mention of the numerous independent members of the community who had attended who were present! A strange concept of balanced reporting.

The application for Resilient Energy’s third community-scale wind turbine in the district was recommended for refusal by planning officers who claimed it would have ‘significant adverse impacts’ on the landscape.

This is a very simplistic dismisal of the Planning Officer’s detailed and comprehensive report which ran to some 20 pages of accurate data, as opposed to the selective sales pitch of the applicants claims!

The decision was given the go-ahead by 10 to three and one abstention.

A sad reflection on the standard of decisionmaking and even possible corruption of the due process within the FoDDC planning committee!

The application has been controversial with some residents opposing the turbine and an online campaign particularly on the grounds of noise and visual intrusion.

That the overwhelming percentage of independent members of the community were opposed to the application and wrote reasoned and detailed letters of objection is an undeniable fact, albeit overlooked. Support for the application seems to have been almost exclusively garnered from the internet and with standard proforma letters, solicited by the professional company working with the applicant, Councillor Maria Edwards. Many of the supporting letters, from within the area, seem to have been from tennants and employees of the Edwards family!

It would be of help if the press would direct interested parties to the online campaign based upon noise and visual aspects as I for one am unaware of such a campaign and am unable to locate it even with Google!

The Forest council say while they are keen to support any initiatives that help the environment and are good for the community, each will be considered on its own merits and must comply with national and our local planning policy.

Understanding of what is and what is not environmentally beneficial would seem to be beyond the understanding of FoDDC planning committee!

Janine Michael, from Dean Community Energy group, said: “We are pleased councillors recognise the community benefits this scheme will bring. This was a great example of democracy in action.”

Dean Community Energy Group would seem to be a largely moribund organisation supporting a web site which runs to 4 items of news, the last being from December 2013! The site has 4 pages, put together in a manner not disimilar to that used by The Resiliance Company in their commercial interest and no readily identifiable individual participants – I suspect it is a commercial spin off of the wind turbine scam in general!

The wind turbine is capable of generating an amount of energy which is the equivalent required for 275 homes. The energy generated is sold onto the national grid with any profits given back to the community.

This is tortolagous twaddle!
Firstly wind turbines are so grossly inefficient they can not be relied upon to produce one iota of power when required! Even on the applicants fantasy figures based upon 24/7 optimum power generation – which NEVER occurs – this means Tidenham requires some 20 such turbines for domestic requirements alone!

As for giving ANY PROFITS to the community this is a dishonest misrepresentation as even the applicants are only talking of a small percentage of the profit! It would also seem, from data in the public domain, that the applicant Councillor Maria Edward’s agents Resilience, in one or other of their corporate guises, extract a basic fee of between 9 & 10% in perpituity from the gross income, together no doubt with direct fees based upon costs and profits thereon – then of course any disbursements by way of income to any investors be they Resilience its owners or international corporate investors.

Thus the net bribe to the effective community, which has NOT been clearly defined, is ever diminishing being a very small percentage of the residual profit in prescribed areas!

Resilient Energy’s first wind turbine at Great Dunkilns Farm in St Briavels has been operating since January 2013, and has so far provided £25,000 to local causes. A second turbine at Alvington Court is expected to complete this autumn.

Firstly it is reassuring to note that resiliance are prepared to show that their turbine at Great Dunkilns Farm is something of a failure and that St. Briavels would require dozens of turbines to supply even their domestic needs!
As for the Alvington Court turbine, which was widely rejected by the community and denied construction by FoDDC and was only shoe horned in by use of a Planning Apeal – even then it seems something of a disaster as it has failed to raise the funds required to erect it, even with subsidies! Shareholder applications were insufficient and a loan of £600,000 had to be obtained – so I presume that will be, together with the interest, set against the so called communitty benefit as a cost to their percentage!

Director of the Resilience Centre, Andrew Clarke said: “The decision to give permission for the project is great news. We will now commence raising money from sale of shares in the project to the public. We expect the shares to return 7 per cent each year in interest to investors plus Enterprise Investment Tax relief from the UK Government which in effect pays you back for 30 per cent of the shares you buy via tax rebate. 

I do appreciate the decision is great news for the applicants, who will now be eligible for huge subsidies from the tax payer for their near totally useless and clearly unpopular industrialisation of this area for the community. It is however deeply unfortunate for the public at large both in terms of the amount of tax payers money that will now be wasted but also for the ecological damage particularly environmentally in terms of both amenity and Carbon footprint!

I would also urge individuals to treat the investment terms presented with some care as they may well be a matter for high tax payers and less rosy for others – as you will appreciate the applicant and their agents are not financial advisors and not bound by the ethical codes of the FSA!

“We expect the money to be raised by end of 2015 and construction to start in spring 2016. Our Alvington Court turbine is set for completion next month.

Expectation is one thing but reality is another – let us face it the St. Briavels turbine is proving far from a success with less than 1/3rd. efficacy, or so the owners were forced to admit by Tidenham Parish Council who took their duties rather more seriously than FoDDC who failed to question any of the basic unsubstantiated claims of the applicant and their agents!

Likewise we have already ascertained Resiliance failed to raise the money for the Aylvington installation and have had to resort to massive borrowing!

“An independent community panel will decide how the money is distributed while any surplus monies will be decided by a board of directors.”

Independent would seem to a hugely subjective viewpoint of little meaning or significance, as is the  nebulous infference of ‘surplus profit’ surplus to what and surplus of what claims that may be made? This is clearly a meaningless claim!

Applicants Green Energy were also given the nod for a commercial solar farm at Tump Farm, Sedbury on Friday by planning officer Mr Tony Pope.

There is at least rather more honesty in claiming solar panels are ‘green’ than there is in the dishonest pretence that a wind turbine standing 337 feet above the River Severn is in some consequential way beneficial to the ‘community’!

Farmer Lyndon Edwards said he was pleased that councillors had backed the scheme and added that the turbine will be erected in the next 12 months.

It is clear that as a businessman Lyndon Edwards with his Farm Shop, rented Office complex, numerous rented properties is prone to, in farming terms, count his chickens before they are hatched in that the ‘community’ he has seen fit to exploit has already called upon Greg Clarke, the Minister concerned, to call in the plans and the local MP Mark Harper to take strenuous steps to meet with the ‘effected community’ group and investigate possible corruption of due process and that the ‘effected community’ group are investigating the details of Judicial Review of the process utilised, to obtain committee consent and the possibilities of corruption of due process – I feel that the process is far from over and the likelihood of completion of this industrial installation is far from being a certainty, let alone within a year!

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

PS – 59:

18-Aug-2015
(PS-59: Meeting of Planning of 11-Aug-2015 AUDIO Recording posted – LINK)

The full audio of FoDDC Planning Committee of 11-Aug-2015, in the Council chambers meeting is now available for all to hear ta:
http://www.fdean.gov.uk/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=7081&tt=graphic&externalurl=meetings.fdean.gov.uk:80/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=245&MId=1361&Ver=4

this will take you directly to the site and then click on Play Audio which is below
>Contact Alison Tomlin<.

It is the first item on the agenda and the section pertinent to the Severndale Planning Application to industrialise the open space between the A48 and the River Severn commences at some 7 minutes into the recording.

I attended the meeting as did a number of members of The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine Group and supporters who oppose this dangerous instalation and the precedent it may well set for industrialisation of the open banks of the River Severn.

The meeting was a verys sad afair, when considering the integrity and intellect of local democracy and gave the impression that the whole process had been corrupted by the exploitation of the general level of utter incompetence and gullibility of the elected Councillors who spoke to the issue. It became clear they had little or no knowledge of the issues, had clearly read little on the subject, had paid scant, if any, notice of the salaried expertise of the FoDDC report and recommendation and had even less understanding of current law and Government policy.

That Tidenham District Councillor had so little comand of his brief and failed to recognise the staggeringly few advocates of the application who had made other than acquiescence to a standard letter and misleading social media comment was apparent but not considered as Gethyn Davies rummaged through the script he had prepared, unable to find the documents required!

Tidenham’s other District Councillor Maria Edwards recused herself from the proceedings being the applicant in this case and alsdo involved in at least 2 other planning issues!

You will hear from the recording that NONE of the Councillors on the committee brought to bear any planning issues and contented themselves with anecdotal opinions and unrelated views in a staggering display of ineptitude – clearly having accepted the presentation of Maria Edwards application and her agent and co partner’s disparaging remarks about the FoDDC’s Planning Report and recommendation, also her husband passed himself off as the applicant when presenting her case in a very biased manner seemingly claiming support for the project was widespread and informed when clearly that was not the case.

It was also a sad day for democracy when so many Councillors saw fit to totally overlook the clear majority view and opposition fromn Tidenham Parish Council and those who will be directly effected by thwe imposition of this industrial instalation. It was overlooked that support for the turbine from the immediate area was almost all in the form of solicited signatures on standard letters from tennants and employees of Maria Edwards and her husband, whilst the balance of the support was seemingly from an ill informed wider area using standard preprinted letters and signature to on line petitions – in the misguided belief that Wind Turbines are in some way ecologically sound and a viable alternative supply of power – which they most clearly are not.

Asd has been shown on this site not only are wind turbines of this ilk hugely environmentally damaging, not only to birds, bats and the like but in terms of long term soil damage and the eco system in general, also in the prodigious output of so called global warming gases, such as CO2, in their manufacture, a Carbon damage which takes some 10 to 15 years of output of these giant turbines, at optimum levels, to compensate for the damage done in manufacture and construction. The CO2 output of the concrete required for the plinth alone is quite staggering!

will retain the right to appeal decisions although they will have to take into account the “clear requirement” for local backing.

John Rhodes, director at consultancy Quod, said the statements made by the government would be important material considerations in any onshore wind proposals and “will no doubt weigh heavily with local authorities and the Planning Inspectorate”. He added: “It will be a brave, determined or reckless promoter who now brings forward wind farm proposals onshore in the light of the government’s strongly stated policy.”

END OF ARTICLES.

I trust this will give some insight into the present planning muddle and offer  some hope to those in the effected community as opposed to the perceived misrepresentation of the law made by FoDDC Planning Committee, who would seem to have struck a cosy deal to suit Resillience, who are acting for Councillor Maria Edwards’ application, in a manner that would seem to be ultra viries and as such a corruption of the due process, which should not reach cosy deals with applicants with or without public consultation.

The Government manifesto, on which Mrs. Maria Edwards was elected, clearly states that it was essential that the effected community MUST approve the application and by no stretch of the imagine can the 5km. radius be considered to be the local effected community being an area which includes the whole of Chepstow, St. Arvans and part of Tintern in the devolved area of Monmouthshire, lumped in as a part of the National Area of Wales! Nor was the claim that was made to and by the FoDDC planning committee that support of 2 to 1 in favour of the commercialisation a true reflection of the facts pertaining to the effected community within a 1.5km. radius. Nor in fact does it reflect the cosy arrangement reached for Councillor Maria Edwards by the Planning Committee on which she sits, of 5kms., nor even for the equally misleading 3km. radius and as was shown it does not reflect the community of Tidenham even though it is, I believe, the largest Parish in Britain, where the Parish Council of Tidenham representing the Tidenham community unequivocally voted to reject the application.

I trust the Minister will take note of your letter and the many other facts which show this to be an application which provides a clear case to ‘Call In’ the plans and stand by the Government’s manifesto and its various official and well documented statements of policy. Policies for which you are the Government Chief Whip and as a Treasury Officer and a qualified accountant are well aware of the inefficiency and unreliable nature of wind turbines as an alternative source of power – a source we, as a country deeply in debt and facing inevitable cuts and austerity, can no longer afford to subsidise and thereby enrich wealthy land owners and corporate interests!

I would like to once again thank you for your time and such support you have felt able to offer the effected local community to date and look forward to your continued, and hopefully increased support, for the effected community as your constituents both in the matter of ‘Calling In’ and should it be required to ensure justice is seen to be done any subsequent ‘Judicial Review’.

Regards,

Greg_L-W.

Greg Lance-Watkins

eMail:  Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

Phone: 01594 – 528 337 – Calls from withheld numbers are blocked & calls are recorded

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

PS – 58:

17-Aug-2015
(PS-58: Robert Hillman’s letter on behalf of
The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine Group
to Sec.State Greg Clark MP
requesting the Council’s procedure be ‘Called In’)

Here is a draft copy of the letter to the Secretary of State Greg Clarke MP copies of which were mailed to:
the local MP Mark Harper
the National Planning Casework Unit – npcu@communities.gsi.gov.uk
Stephen Colegate Planning officer FODDC
& numerous other concerned individuals.

In the interest of transparency and as the letter is clearly no confidential I include it here:

From: Robert Hillman P&C
Sent: 16 August 2015 17:36
To: REDACTED
Subject: Private – Calling in Procedure request in relation to 87m wind turbine on edge of River Severn Estuary – planning application no. P0365/15/FUL Change of use of agricultural land to wind turbine and installation – Severndale Farm Tidenham Chepstow NP16
VERY URGENT
Dear Minister,

On Tuesday 11th August the Forest of Dean District Council Planning Committee resolved to grant consent to the above application (the Application).

The outcome is of national importance, as the Planning Committee verbal decision was made with a disregard and/or misunderstanding for full and proper consideration of your 18th June 2015 guidance in relation to impacts on the “local affected community”.

I write, as a representative of the local affected community, and to request the “Calling in” of the Application for your own determination. Accordingly, with respect, this matter requires your urgent attention, given that the written decision of the Forest of Dean District Council application is now imminently pending.

Background:

THIS SECTION CURRENTLY WITHELD PENDING RESPONSE FROM THE MINISTER CONCERNED so as to be assured we are not in any way prejudicing our legal position in the long run.
Please acknowledge receipt of this email correspondence by return

Your sincerely

Robert Hillman
For and on behalf of The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine
Comprising of

Elizabeth-Avery & William Avery-Brown Wibdon Cottage, Stroat – approximately 700m from turbine
David Bollen – High Hall Farm – within 750m of turbine
Tracey & Andy Brookes – Underwood Farm – within 800m of turbine
Louella & David Brown – The Waldins – within 650m of the turbine
Nigel & Linda Elsby – Stroat House – within 1.5kms of the turbine
Claire & Roger Ford – The steps – approximately 500m form the turbine
Fiona & Robert Goatman – Beverstone Farm – approximately 1km from turbine
Robert & Alison Hillman Philpots Court Farm – within 700m of Turbine
Lindsay & Mark Hollies – Chapel House, Hanley Lane – within 1km of turbine
Lee & Greg Lance-Watkins – Home Cottage Stroat – within 1.5km of turbine
Molly & Keith Mayo – Wibdon Farm – within 650 to 700m from turbine
Pam & David Smith – Old Post Office within 900m of turbine
Sue and Peter Wright – Little Wibdon, Stroat, approx. 500 – 550meters from turbine
Lisa Bolt – Everene Philpots Court within 700 m of turbine
James & Clare Rees – Greystones within 775m of turbine
Andrew and Sue Nairne 4 Philpots Court – within 700m of turbine
Nigel and Samantha Cross 3 Philpots Court – within 700m of turbine
Pam Davidson – The Garstons – within 750m of turbine

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

PS – 57:

16-Aug-2015
(PS-57: G.L-W. letter to Mark Harper MP requesting his attendance at The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine Group meeting in Stroat:)

From: Greg Lance-Watkins [mailto:greg_l-w@btconnect.com]
Sent: 17 August 2015 03:11
To: MARK HARPER MP; Mark Harper MP for The Forest of Dean
Cc: ‘Greg Lance-Watkins’; admin@tidenhamparishcouncil.co.uk; clerk@tidenhamparishcouncil.co.uk
Subject: re Government Policy & Local Responsibility re: P0365/15/FUL

From: Greg Lance-Watkins (Greg_L-W)
At: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

re Government Policy & Local Responsibility re: P0365/15/FUL

Hi,

You will be aware that not only have I written to you in detail regarding Government policy regarding wind turbines but also regarding the issues surrounding the particular application for a wind turbine, standing 337 feet above the Severn Estuary on Hanley Hill in Stroat, as a dangerous moving distraction alongside the A48, which is Europe’s most dangerous major road in terms of fatalities per mile travelled!

You will be aware that I have had several conversations with your office manager Ben Stone, and others in your constituency office, in which I have expressed deep concern at the lack of integrity of members of the Conservative representation on the Forest of Dean Districty Council, eg that they were recently elected on a Conservative Manifesto, to which none demured, yet they have failed to advise the electorate of their personal interests, that were counter that manifesto, during the electoral period – thus their actions bringing the Conservative Party and the Council into disrepute are clear.

I appreciate that you will do all you can to avoid becoming embroilled in a matter of such contention, however I am also aware that as a Government Whip it is your duty to seek to bring about Government stated policy, particularly in respect of both the Party Manifesto and clearly declared Government Policy, as presented by Ministers and spokesmen for the Cabinet, both in the House of Commons and elsewhere in public and on public media.

You will also be well aware that I have not only managed a web presence on the matter, now running to some 55,000 words of facts and views generally pertaining to Wind Turbines and largely directly apposite to the application for a Turbine at Severndale Farm. The web site can be found at:
http://stroat-gloucestershire.com/2015/05/17/60m-wind-turbine-eyesore-application-for-stroat
where you will also find copies of many of my letters and also those of others pertinent to this planning application, which is clearly seen by many as a direct and flagrant disregard for the intent and spirit of official Conservative Government stated policy and Manifesto commitments.

You will also be aware that I have been in close liason with:
The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine Group
which includes members of the immediate community
AVERY-BROWN, Elizabeth-Avery & William Wibdon Cottage, Stroat – approximately 700m from proposed turbine
BOLLEN, David – High Hall Farm – within 750m from proposed turbine
BOLT, Lisa – Everene Philpots Court within 700 m from proposed turbine
BROOKES, Tracey & Andy – Underwood Farm – within 800m of turbine
BROWN, Louella & David – The Waldins – within 650m of the turbine
CROSS, Nigel and Samantha 3 Philpots Court – within 700m from proposed turbine
DAVIDSON, Pam – The Garstons – within 750m from proposed turbine
ELSBY, Nigel & Linda, Stroat House, within 1.5km from proposed turbine
FORD, Claire & Roger – The steps – approximately 500m from proposed turbine
GOATMAN, Fiona & Robert – Beverstone Farm – approximately 1km from proposed turbine
HILLMAN, Robert & Alison Philpots Court Farm – within 700m from proposed turbine
HOLLIES, Lindsay & Mark – Chapel House, Hanley Lane – within 1km from proposed turbine
LANCE-WATKINS, Lee & Greg – Home Cottage Stroat – within 1.5km from proposed turbine
MAYO, Molly & Keith – Wibdon Farm – within 650 to 700m from from proposed turbine
NAIRNE, Andrew and Sue 4 Philpots Court – within 700m from proposed turbine
REES, James & Clare – Greystones within 775m from proposed turbine
SMITH, Pam & David – Old Post Office within 900m from proposed turbine
WRIGHT, Sue and Peter – Little Wibdon, Stroat, approx. 500 – 550meters from proposed turbine

Minded that it is a relatively sparsley populated rural area, where numerous properties will be level with the blades on the overlooking slopes and clear visibility will be from Aust, Littlehampton, Thornbury, Rockhampton, Hill, Oldbury, Berkeley, Sharpness and beyond as it stands undisguised by trees or other obstacles.

There would seem to be few if any supporters of the imposition of this turbine from within the community – other than those who have signed standard letters provided and solicited by the applicants, either as potential beneficiaries in the scheme , tenants or employees!

It is for this reason we call upon you to act, as our constituency MP, in defence of your Government’s stated policy that decisions of this ilk should be made by the community – a policy that has clearly been ignored by your party within the FoDDC and particularly the planning committee who perversely and vexatiously acted against the direct advice of the Planning Officer in a manner which seems all too readily to appear a corruption of due process.

On Monday you will receive a copy of a letter seeking to ‘call in this application’, sent on behalf of our ‘community’ to:
Greg Clarke – Secretary of State for Communities & Local Environment
In the light of his clear and unequivocal pronouncements and undertakings in the House of Commons with regard to local community decision making and other aspects of this application, as also presented by Amber Rudd in the house and elsewhere.

You will be aware that this action must be taken before the official Council publication of the results of the planning application, thus time is of the essence.

Additionally we have six weeks from the official publication by the FoDDC Planning Committee’s judgement to then consider and seek a Judicial Review of the process and the dubious actions of Councillors in the manner of their election, their subsequent behaviour and their perverse and vexatious decision which would seem in some aspects not only to be perverse but also contra Government policy and possibly even corrupt.

As this could lead to private individuals incurring costs in upholding your Government’s clearly stated policy we therefore request that you arrange an urgent meeting with representatives of:
The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine Group
At a venue in the immediate area of the site of the application, within the ‘community’, which being residents in this immediate area we can readily provide.

You are all too welcome to bring your Conservative Council leader with you but clearly his direct involvement in the appointment of candidates and more importantly the appointment of Cllr. Maria Edwards, whose position is morally untennable, particularly as a member of the planning committee with direct interests in numerous applications, which places his judgement in question, particularly as his Mother is presented as one of our 3 District Councillors in Tidenham; alongside the Labour turncoat Gethen Davies, who most clearly had little understanding of Conservative Manifesto commitments and stated policy, as evidenced by his lack of understanding of the issues, or of Wind Turbines in general, as evidenced by his comments recorded at the planning committee.

We will seek to accommodate your time requirements where possible and look forward to meeting with you in the community at your earliest convenience.
.

Regards,
Greg_L-W.

Greg Lance-Watkins
eMail: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com
Phone: 01594 – 528 337 – Calls from withheld numbers are blocked & calls are recorded

http://GregLanceWatkins.com
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http://GL-W.com
http://GLWdocuments.wordpress.com

http://JustSayNOtoEU.com

http://Leave-The-EU.org.uk
http://HollieGreigetc.wordpress.com
http://ChristopherStory.org

Opposing A Wind Turbine:
http://stroat-gloucestershire.com/2015/05/17/60m-wind-turbine-eyesore-application-for-stroat
http://UKIP-vs-EUkip.com
TWITTER: @Greg_LW
Skype: gregl-w
FleXcit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfEo_TNllk4
FleXcit full text: http://www.eureferendum.com/documents/flexcit.pdf
For detailed analysis of selected items in the news:
http://www.eureferendum.com
PLEASE NOTE:
I never post anonymously on the internet.
For details & declaration of accuracy please see:
ACCURACY & THE TRUTH …

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

PS – 55:

08-Aug-2015
(PS-55: Letter to Planning Committee Members from
The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine Group
drafted by Robert Hillman)

Dear Planning Committee Members,

I am writing to you in advance of the forthcoming 11 August committee, as a representative of the local affected community who are opposed to Severndale wind turbine and who will have just a 3 minute opportunity to address you on the day.

This application has created significant concerns and impact on those who live within the communities of Tidenham and Stroat. Your planning officer has dealt admirably with the volume and complexity of the application. It has led to extensive energy and time commitments by many individuals, entering into detailed correspondence with the planning authority, putting forward their concerns and queries. Not all of this correspondence has made it onto the planning portal associated with the application. Hence the need to bring this summary to your attention, in advance of the meeting.

Set out below is a summary of the principle concerns the affected community has and the reasons why we believe the committee should support your officer’s recommendation for a refusal of the application:

Our objections and the reasons why the planning committee should refuse the application are based on the following:

• There has been a lack of affected local community involvement and open discussion regarding this application;
• The applicant’s agent has used data in contravention of data protection laws as documented by the Information Commission Office Decision for case RFA0584190 of 21 July 2015. This is in relation to parts of their application and as such information from the alleged public exhibition meeting at which comments from the community were sort, should be disregarded;
• Following the House of Commons written statement of 18th of June, there is a clear lack of “affected local community” support for this scheme. The written statement is clear that such support should provide the final say so on such applications. Please note the word “affected local community” in the written statement. In the event of a refusal, the applicant is likely to appeal the decision. We feel the written reasons for any refusal should be robust and specifically contain reference to the lack of community support;
• The elected Tidenham Parish Council, representing the immediate area continues to object to the application;
• The elected Parish Council of Oldbury on Severn objects to the application on the basis it will materially affect the landscape value, historic environment and amenity of public rights of way on both sides of the estuary and the application does not provide a comprehensive cumulative picture of the effect turbines are having on the Severn Estuary as a whole;
• Analysis has been submitted that clearly highlights on a parish map that public respondees within Tidenham Parish itself are against the application. This ignores any online canvassing, or the use of pre-populated letters, parties with conflicted interests to the applicant and just highlights those who have expressed their own personal and researched views. It provides a clear indication of an overwhelming majority of people within the parish that do not support this application;
• The height and prominent location of the moving turbine , at 87m to tip located on top of a 22m hill above estuary level, will be a significant intrusive impact on the landscape, character and general visual amenity. It will be detrimental to the vista of the Severn estuary flood plains;
• The Ramblers Association object as the proposal would result in a loss of visual amenity from public rights of way. They have concerns this will affect tourists, as well as local walkers and talk of visible and negative effects as a direct result of the turbine from both sides of the Severn Vale;
• The Council’s own conservation advisor continues to highlight that the proposed development will fail to preserve the settings of the listed buildings at Philpots Court and Tippets Barn. He also highlights the harm that will be caused to non-designated heritage assets at the Former Vicarage and village school at Tidenham. All in contravention to section 66 of the planning (listed building and conservation areas) act 1990 and the National planning policy framework Section 12;
• Historic England continue to comment that the turbine will cause harm to the significance of the Roman Villa at Boughspring. Commenting there needs to be clear and convincing justification that the public benefits outweigh that harm (in accordance with NPPF 132);
• Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology have raised concerns regarding adverse impact on settings of similar designated heritage assets;
• We have significant concerns regarding the last minute submissions and then the process of a local authorities biodiversity officer seemingly being able to swiftly accept the ecology effects as satisfactory via a simple walkover survey on 1st of July. This contradicts with previous concerns that both bird and bat surveys are outdated, having been undertaken 4 years ago in 2011. Whilst clear recommendations for planning conditions are recommended, the apparent ability for an officer to rely on data more than 4 years old is questionable in terms of both appropriate practice and open governance. Especially given that Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust highlight internationally protected species being present at the site in 2011. The officer’s approach is in stark contrast to the RSPB’s written letter of objection submitted to the planning authority dated 26 May 2015 (which is not shown on the Planning portal);
• The council’s sustainability team leader continues to advise the council that the application will result in significant adverse landscape impact, does not meet the local authorities guidance and fails to meet the requirements of chapter 10 of the National Planning Policy Framework;
• As a local community we have significant road safety concerns with regard to the accident black spot that is the A48. This relates to both the short and long term affects and has been over simplified by the single statutory consultation. In recent weeks the Forrester newspaper has reported on the need to reduce the local casualty rates on the A48 and in particular to its southern sections. Also within the last few weeks we are aware of 3 vehicles being in the hedgerow/accidents very close to the layby near the site. We are also tragically all too aware of at least one fatality and serious injury within very close proximity in the last 12 months. These accidents, and the foreseeable risks of a distracting turbine and vehicle movements in the area, are completely overlooked by Gloucestershire Highways, who have commented on just construction traffic. The local authority cannot ignore these published concerns for improving the road safety, or the foreseeable risk of a distracting 87 metre moving turbine in close proximity to a recognised accident black spot. A single distraction on a 60mph high-speed single carriageway (where speed limits are frequently ignored by motorcyclists and cars) will directly lead to further accidents and fatalities; and
• Queries have been raised on the accuracy of figures in relation to the community fund payments. Recent submissions by the applicant are endeavouring to persuade the council that significant monetary payments will outweigh the negative impact of the turbine on the affected community. It is questionable as to whether the figures submitted are commercially deliverable. It is also clear the council has no ability to control any such agreements, either via attaching planning conditions or being party to such agreements. As such this cannot be relied on. The officer has clearly recommended that this material should not be a consideration in determining the application.

It is on this basis that the harm identified in respect of the landscape, heritage assets and lack of support from the affected community significantly outweigh the benefits of the application and planning consent should be refused.

Finally, we are surprised that the decision to arrange for the application to be heard in August was feasible, given we were told previously by council officials this would be presented at September’s committee to allow full consultation and appropriate reviews. The need to withdraw the application from the July committee was as a direct result of late submissions by the applicant. We have concerns that this change of date to the August committee raises questions of transparency. And whether there may have been undue influence due to the applicant’s disclosable pecuniary interest and that the non-material planning matters as contained in the applicants letter of 15 July on community benefit (In which the applicant details commercial funding risks associated with a September committee decision) have been weighted in favour of the applicant. This information, in line with other published planning appeal decisions, falls outside the scope of Section 106(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and fails the tests set out in Regulation 122 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 as amended. It should therefore not be a material consideration to the planning process or decision.

Please ensure this correspondence is taken on board fully in making your decision next week.

Yours sincerely

Robert Hillman BSc (Hons) MRICS
For and on behalf of The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine
Comprising of:
ADLAM, Jackie & Peter
AVERY-BROWN, Liz & Bill
BOLLEN, David
BOLT, Lisa
BROOKES, Tracey & Andy
BROWN, Louella & David
CROSS, Nigel and Samantha
FORD, Claire & Roger
GOATMAN, Fiona & Robert
HILLMAN, Robert & Alison
HOLLIES, Lindsay & Mark
LANCE-WATKINS, Lee & Greg
MAYO, Molly & Keith
NAIRNE, Andrew and Sue
REES, James & Clare
SMITH, Pam & David
WRIGHT, Sue and Peter

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

PS – 54:

30-Jul-2015
(PS-54: Exposing the environmental damage caused by wind turbine)

Exposing the environmental damage caused by wind turbines – and this is only highlighting one of the many environmentally damaging costs of wind turbines – consider the huge production of pollutants particularly CO2 in the production of the vaste amount of cement required for a single mounting block for one of these inefficient pretences at a solution to anthropogenic global warming, which even the warmists can not show exists in any consequential measure!

In China, the true cost of Britain’s clean, green wind power experiment: Pollution on a disastrous scale

By SIMON PARRY in China and ED DOUGLAS in Scotland

Created: 19:32, 26 January 2011

View comments

This toxic lake poisons Chinese farmers, their children and their land. It is what’s left behind after making the magnets for Britain’s latest wind turbines… and, as a special Live investigation reveals, is merely one of a multitude of environmental sins committed in the name of our new green Jerusalem

 

The lake of toxic waste at Baotou, China, which as been dumped by the rare earth processing plants in the background

On the outskirts of one of China’s most polluted cities, an old farmer stares despairingly out across an immense lake of bubbling toxic waste covered in black dust. He remembers it as fields of wheat and corn.

Yan Man Jia Hong is a dedicated Communist. At 74, he still believes in his revolutionary heroes, but he despises the young local officials and entrepreneurs who have let this happen.

‘Chairman Mao was a hero and saved us,’ he says. ‘But these people only care about money. They have destroyed our lives.’

Vast fortunes are being amassed here in Inner Mongolia; the region has more than 90 per cent of the world’s legal reserves of rare earth metals, and specifically neodymium, the element needed to make the magnets in the most striking of green energy producers, wind turbines.

Live has uncovered the distinctly dirty truth about the process used to extract neodymium: it has an appalling environmental impact that raises serious questions over the credibility of so-called green technology.

The reality is that, as Britain flaunts its environmental credentials by speckling its coastlines and unspoiled moors and mountains with thousands of wind turbines, it is contributing to a vast man-made lake of poison in northern China. This is the deadly and sinister side of the massively profitable rare-earths industry that the ‘green’ companies profiting from the demand for wind turbines would prefer you knew nothing about.

Hidden out of sight behind smoke-shrouded factory complexes in the city of Baotou, and patrolled by platoons of security guards, lies a five-mile wide ‘tailing’ lake. It has killed farmland for miles around, made thousands of people ill and put one of China’s key waterways in jeopardy.

 

This vast, hissing cauldron of chemicals is the dumping ground for seven million tons a year of mined rare earth after it has been doused in acid and chemicals and processed through red-hot furnaces to extract its components.

Wind power’s uncertainties don’t end with intermittency. There is huge controversy about how much energy a wind farm will produce (Pictured above, wind turbines in Dun Law, Scotland)

Rusting pipelines meander for miles from factories processing rare earths in Baotou out to the man-made lake where, mixed with water, the foul-smelling radioactive waste from this industrial process is pumped day after day. No signposts and no paved roads lead here, and as we approach security guards shoo us away and tail us. When we finally break through the cordon and climb sand dunes to reach its brim, an apocalyptic sight greets us: a giant, secret toxic dump, made bigger by every wind turbine we build.

The lake instantly assaults your senses. Stand on the black crust for just seconds and your eyes water and a powerful, acrid stench fills your lungs.

For hours after our visit, my stomach lurched and my head throbbed. We were there for only one hour, but those who live in Mr Yan’s village of Dalahai, and other villages around, breathe in the same poison every day.

Retired farmer Su Bairen, 69, who led us to the lake, says it was initially a novelty – a multi-coloured pond set in farmland as early rare earth factories run by the state-owned Baogang group of companies began work in the Sixties.

‘At first it was just a hole in the ground,’ he says. ‘When it dried in the winter and summer, it turned into a black crust and children would play on it. Then one or two of them fell through and drowned in the sludge below. Since then, children have stayed away.’

 

As more factories sprang up, the banks grew higher, the lake grew larger and the stench and fumes grew more overwhelming.

‘It turned into a mountain that towered over us,’ says Mr Su. ‘Anything we planted just withered, then our animals started to sicken and die.’

People too began to suffer. Dalahai villagers say their teeth began to fall out, their hair turned white at unusually young ages, and they suffered from severe skin and respiratory diseases. Children were born with soft bones and cancer rates rocketed.

Official studies carried out five years ago in Dalahai village confirmed there were unusually high rates of cancer along with high rates of osteoporosis and skin and respiratory diseases. The lake’s radiation levels are ten times higher than in the surrounding countryside, the studies found.

Since then, maybe because of pressure from the companies operating around the lake, which pump out waste 24 hours a day, the results of ongoing radiation and toxicity tests carried out on the lake have been kept secret and officials have refused to publicly acknowledge health risks to nearby villages.

There are 17 ‘rare earth metals’ – the name doesn’t mean they are necessarily in short supply; it refers to the fact that the metals occur in scattered deposits of minerals, rather than concentrated ores. Rare earth metals usually occur together, and, once mined, have to be separated.

Villagers Su Bairen, 69, and Yan Man Jia Hong, 74, stand on the edge of the six-mile-wide toxic lake in Baotou, China that has devastated their farmland and ruined the health of the people in their community

 

Neodymium is commonly used as part of a Neodymium-Iron-Boron alloy (Nd2Fe14B) which, thanks to its tetragonal crystal structure, is used to make the most powerful magnets in the world. Electric motors and generators rely on the basic principles of electromagnetism, and the stronger the magnets they use, the more efficient they can be. It’s been used in small quantities in common technologies for quite a long time – hi-fi speakers, hard drives and lasers, for example. But only with the rise of alternative energy solutions has neodymium really come to prominence, for use in hybrid cars and wind turbines. A direct-drive permanent-magnet generator for a top capacity wind turbine would use 4,400lb of neodymium-based permanent magnet material.

In the pollution-blighted city of Baotou, most people wear face masks everywhere they go.

‘You have to wear one otherwise the dust gets into your lungs and poisons you,’ our taxi driver tells us, pulling over so we can buy white cloth masks from a roadside hawker.

Posing as buyers, we visit Baotou Xijun Rare Earth Co Ltd. A large billboard in front of the factory shows an idyllic image of fields of sheep grazing in green fields with wind turbines in the background.

In a smartly appointed boardroom, Vice General Manager Cheng Qing tells us proudly that his company is the fourth biggest producer of rare earth metals in China, processing 30,000 tons a year. He leads us down to a complex of primitive workshops where workers with no protective clothing except for cotton gloves and face masks ladle molten rare earth from furnaces with temperatures of 1,000°C.

The result is 1.5kg bricks of neodymium, packed into blue barrels weighing 250kg each. Its price has more than doubled in the past year – it now costs around £80 per kilogram. So a 1.5kg block would be worth £120 – or more than a fortnight’s wages for the workers handling them. The waste from this highly toxic process ends up being pumped into the lake looming over Dalahai.

The state-owned Baogang Group, which operates most of the factories in Baotou, claims it invests tens of millions of pounds a year in environmental protection and processes the waste before it is discharged.

According to Du Youlu of Baogang’s safety and environmental protection department, seven million tons of waste a year was discharged into the lake, which is already 100ft high and growing by three feet each year.

In what appeared an attempt to shift responsibility onto China’s national leaders and their close control of the rare earths industry, he added: ‘The tailing is a national resource and China will ultimately decide what will be done with the lake.’

 

Jamie Choi, an expert on toxics for Greenpeace China, says villagers living near the lake face horrendous health risks from the carcinogenic and radioactive waste.

‘There’s not one step of the rare earth mining process that is not disastrous for the environment. Ores are being extracted by pumping acid into the ground, and then they are processed using more acid and chemicals.

Inside the Baotou Xijun Rare Earth refinery in Baotou, where neodymium, essential in new wind turbine magnets, is processed

Finally they are dumped into tailing lakes that are often very poorly constructed and maintained. And throughout this process, large amounts of highly toxic acids, heavy metals and other chemicals are emitted into the air that people breathe, and leak into surface and ground water. Villagers rely on this for irrigation of their crops and for drinking water. Whenever we purchase products that contain rare earth metals, we are unknowingly taking part in massive environmental degradation and the destruction of communities.’

The fact that the wind-turbine industry relies on neodymium, which even in legal factories has a catastrophic environmental impact, is an irony Ms Choi acknowledges.

‘It is a real dilemma for environmentalists who want to see the growth of the industry,’ she says. ‘But we have the responsibility to recognise the environmental destruction that is being caused while making these wind turbines.’

It’s a long way from the grim conditions in Baotou to the raw beauty of the Monadhliath mountains in Scotland. But the environmental damage wind turbines cause will be felt here, too. These hills are the latest battleground in a war being fought all over Britain – and particularly in Scotland – between wind-farm developers and those opposed to them.

Cameron McNeish, a hill walker and TV presenter who lives in the Monadhliath, campaigned for almost a decade against the Dunmaglass wind farm before the Scottish government gave the go-ahead in December. Soon, 33 turbines will be erected on the hills north of the upper Findhorn valley.

McNeish is passionate about this landscape: ‘It’s vast and wild and isolated,’ he says. Huge empty spaces, however, are also perfect for wind turbines and unlike the nearby Cairngorms there are no landscape designations to protect this area. When the Labour government put in place the policy framework and subsidies to boost renewable energy, the Monadhliath became a mouth-watering opportunity.

People have been trying to make real money from Scottish estates like Jack Hayward’s Dunmaglass. Hayward, a Bermuda-based property developer and former chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers, struck a deal with renewable energy company RES which, campaigners believe, will earn the estate an estimated £9 million over the next 25 years.

Each of the turbines at Dunmaglass will require servicing, which means a network of new and improved roads 20 miles long being built across the hills. They also need 1,500 tons of concrete foundations to keep them upright in a strong wind, which will scar the area.

Dunmaglass is just one among scores of wind farms in Scotland with planning permission. Scores more are still in the planning system. There are currently 3,153 turbines in the UK overall, with a maximum capacity of 5,203 megawatts.

Around half of them are in Scotland. First Minister Alex Salmond and the Scottish government have said they want to get 80 per cent of Scotland’s electricity from renewables by 2020, which means more turbines spread across the country’s hills and moors.

Many environmental pressure groups share Salmond’s view. Friends of the Earth opposes the Arctic being ruined by oil extraction, but when it comes to damaging Scotland’s wilderness with concrete and hundreds of miles of roads, they say wind energy is worth it as the impact of climate change has to be faced.

‘No way of generating energy is 100 per cent clean and problem-free,’ says Craig Bennett, director of policy and campaigns at Friends of the Earth.

‘Wind energy causes far fewer problems than coal, gas or nuclear. If we don’t invest in green energy, business experts have warned that future generations will be landed with a bill that will dwarf the current financial crisis. But we need to ensure the use of materials like neodymium and concrete is kept to a minimum, that turbines use recycled materials wherever possible and that they are carefully sited to the reduce the already minimal impact on bird populations.’

But Helen McDade, head of policy at the John Muir Trust, a small but feisty campaign group dedicated to protecting Scotland’s wild lands, also points out that leaving aside the damage to the landscape, nobody is really sure how much carbon is being released by the renewable energy construction boom. Peat moors lock up huge amounts of carbon, which gets released when it’s drained to put up a turbine.

Environmental considerations aside, as the percentage of electricity generated by wind increases, renewable energy is coming under a lot more scrutiny now for one simple reason – money. We pay extra for wind power – around twice as much – because it can’t compete with other forms of electricity generation. Under the Renewable Obligation (RO), suppliers have to buy a percentage of their electricity from renewable generators and can hand that cost on to consumers. If they don’t, they pay a fine instead.

One unit cell of Nd2Fe14b, the alloy used in neodymium magnets. The structure of the atoms gives the alloy its magnetic strength, due to a phenomenon known as magnetocrystalline anisotropy

There’s a simple beauty about RO for the government. Even though it’s defined as a tax, it doesn’t come out of pay packets but is stuck on our electricity bills. That has made funding wind farms a lot easier for the government than more cost-effective energy-efficiency measures.

‘If you want a grant for an energy conservation project on your house,’ says Helen McDade, ‘the money comes from taxes. But investment for turbines comes from energy companies.’

Already, RO adds £1.4 billion to our bills each year to provide a pot of money to pay power companies for their ‘green’ electricity. By 2020, the figure will have risen to somewhere between £5 billion and £10 billion.

When he was Chancellor, Gordon Brown added another decade to these price guarantees, extending the RO scheme to 2037, guaranteeing the subsidy for more than a quarter of a century.

It’s not surprising there’s been an avalanche of wind-farm applications in the Highlands. Wind speeds are stronger, land is cheaper and the government loves you.

‘You go to a landowner,’ McDade says, ‘and offer him what is peanuts to an energy company yet keeps him happily on his estate so they can put up a wind farm, which in turn raises ordinary people’s electricity bills. There’s a social issue here that doesn’t get discussed.’

By 2020, environmental regulation will be adding 31 per cent to our bills. That’s £160 green tax out of an average annual bill of £512. As costs rise, more people will be driven into fuel poverty. When he was secretary of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband decreed that these increases should be offset by improvements in energy efficiencies.

It’s a view shared by his successor Chris Huhne, who says inflation due to RO will be effectively one per cent. Britain’s low-income families, facing hikes in petrol and food costs, will hope he’s right.

Individual households aren’t the only ones shouldering the costs. Industry faces an even bigger burden. By 2020, environmental charges will add 33 per cent to industry’s energy costs.

Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, says that, ‘Industry is getting the worst of both worlds. Around 80 per cent of the contracts for the new Thanet offshore wind farm (off the coast of Kent) went abroad, but the expensive electricity will be paid for here.’

Our current obsession with wind power, according to John Constable of energy think-tank the Renewable Energy Foundation, stems from the decision of the European Union on how to tackle climate change. Instead of just setting targets for reducing emissions, the EU told governments that by 2020, 15 per cent of all the energy we use must come from renewable sources.

Because of how we heat our houses and run our cars with gas and petrol, 30 per cent of electricity needs to come from renewables. And in the absence of other technologies, that means wind turbines. But there’s a structural flaw in the plan, which this winter has brutally exposed.

Study a graph of electricity consumption and it appears amazingly predictable, even down to reduced demand on public holidays. The graph for wind energy output, however, is far less predictable.

Take the figures for December, when we all shivered through sub-zero temperatures and wholesale electricity prices surged. Peak demand for the UK on 20 December was just over 60,000 megawatts. Maximum capacity for wind turbines throughout the UK is 5,891 megawatts, almost ten per cent of that peak demand figure.

Yet on December 20, because winds were light or non-existent, wind energy contributed a paltry 140 megawatts. Despite billions of pounds in investment and subsidies, Britain’s wind-turbine fleet was producing a feeble 2.43 per cent of its own capacity – and little more than 0.2 per cent of the nation’s electricity in the coldest month since records began.

The problems with the intermittency of wind energy are well known. A new network of cables linking ten countries around the North Sea is being suggested to smooth supply and take advantage of 140 gigawatts of offshore wind power. No one knows for sure how much this network will cost, although a figure of £25 billion has been mooted.

The government has also realised that when wind nears its target of 30 per cent, power companies will need more back-up to fill the gap when the wind doesn’t blow. Britain’s total capacity will need to rise from 76 gigawatts up to 120 gigawatts. That overcapacity will need another £50 billion and drive down prices when the wind’s blowing. Power companies are anxious about getting a decent price. Once again, consumers will pay.

Wind power’s uncertainties don’t end with intermittency. There is huge controversy about how much energy a wind farm will produce. Many developers claim their installations will achieve 30 per cent of their maximum output over the course of a year. More sober energy analysts suggest 26 per cent. But even that figure is starting to look generous. In December, the average figure was less than 21 per cent. In the year between October 2009 and September 2010, the average was 23.6 per cent, still nowhere near industry claims.

Then there’s the thorny question of how many homes new installations can power. According to wind farm developers like Scottish and Southern Electricity, a house uses 3.3MWh in a year. Lobby group RenewablesUK – formerly the British Wind Energy Association – gives a figure of 4.7MWh. In the Highlands electricity usage is even higher.

Last year, a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering warned that transforming our energy supply to produce a low-carbon economy would require the biggest investment and social change seen in peacetime. And yet Professor Sue Ion, who led the report, warned, ‘We are nowhere near having a plan.’

So, against the backdrop of environmental catastrophe in China and these less than attractive calculations, could the billions being thrown at wind farms be better spent? Undoubtedly, says John Constable.

‘The government is betting the farm on the throw of a die. What’s happening now is simply reckless.’

NUCLEAR, COAL, SOLAR, HYDRO, WIND: HOW THE ENERGY OPTIONS STACK UP

 

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The British energy market is a hugely complicated and ever-changing landscape. We rely on a number of different sources for our energy – some more efficient than others, some more polluting than others.

Here, you can see how much energy each type contributes, how much they are predicted to contribute in 2020, how much carbon dioxide they generate and how efficient they are.

Renewable energy sources receive varying subsidies – which are added to our energy bills – as a result of the government’s Renewables Obligation, whereas ‘traditional’ sources do not.

Critically, government cost figures do not include subsidies, whereas our measure shows precisely how much money a power station receives for each megawatt-hour (MWh) it produces, which includes the price paid for the energy by the supplier and any applicable subsidy. This is an instant measure of an energy supply’s cost-efficiency; the lower the figure, the less that energy costs to produce.

Note: figures relate to UK energy production. Approximately seven per cent of our electricity comes from imports or other sources

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

PS – 53:

25-Jul-2015
(PS-53: Letter/Circular regarding PS-51)

Here is an item of correspondence, written in the light of PS-51, and circulated widely amongst the ‘Community’, members of ‘The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine’, our MP, our Councillors and the public at large, both locally and beyond:

Hi,

You will be pleased to note the steady updating on the web site:
http://stroat-gloucestershire.com/

particulary in the section regarding the parish of Tidenham’s District Councillor on the FoDDC Planning Committee Maria Edwards’ opportunistic planning application:
http://stroat-gloucestershire.com/

I appreciate the site is now packed with facts and views, documents and information – so far running to over 47,000 words with many dozens of links!

I appreciate that few will wish to read all this, but it is essential that we leave no details out and provide clear facts upon which people can make their judgement – we must NOT fall into the trap of providing inaccurate information nor distorting thwe truth inorder to preserve our rural area with all that it offers, we will not sink to the levels of distortiopn, bribery, blackmail that the applicant’s team would seem to be using to put themselves in a profitable situation at the expenswe of the tax payers and in breech of current Government policy as clearly stated in their manifesto, voted into being and presented in Parliament.

IF there is an appeal to the Planning Committee decision it is essential that it can be shown that our opposition has been ethical and honest – thus showing just how corrupt and dishonest the application was. You will note the amount of completely identical letters obtained in support have been, with signatures of very dubious worth, based on clearly misleading information. There is no way in which wind turbines can be descrtibed as environmentally sound and it is clear that the applicant is merely acting out of personal greed dependent on subsidies and inflated value of feed in tarriffs, hence the clear panic shown in their wordy and relatively pointless attempt to discredit the Officer’s report and then the thinly veiled blackmail threatening withdrawal of benefit if the hearing was not carried out to cash in on the current inflated tarriffs!

I do wonder if the applicant has read the DECC’s letter or the Government statement or even the debate in the House of Commons or even the manifesto of her own party or even perhaps whether her agents have hidden the facts, so as to continue charging fees, inspite of the facts!
PS – 51:

DECC – Onshore wind Letter 01
REDACTED NAME
& ADDRESS
Department of Energy & Climate Change
3 Whitehall Place
London
SW1A 2AW

http://www.gov.uk

Our ref: TO2015/07548/JA

24 July 2015
Dear REDACTED NAME,
Thank you for your follow-up email of 6 July to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), about onshore wind subsidies. I have been asked to reply.
On 18 June, the Secretary of State announced to Parliament the end of new subsidies for onshore wind provided by the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme and changes to planning laws so that local people will have the final say on onshore windfarm applications. While onshore wind power plays an important role in Britain’s energy industry, the Government believes there are now enough projects in development to help us meet our renewable electricity commitments. We plan to deliver these changes through an Energy Bill, which was presented into the House of Lords on 9 July.
The Secretary of State has proposed a grace period which would continue to give access to support under the RO to those projects which, as of 18 June, already had planning consent, a grid connection offer and acceptance, and evidence of land rights for the site on which their project will be built. These proposals are intended to deliver on the Conservative election manifesto commitment to end new subsidies for onshore wind in a fair and balanced way. The Secretary of State’s statements may be viewed on the Parliament website.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-vote-office/June%202015/18%20June/2-DECC-Wind.pdf
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm150622/debtext/150622-0001.htm#1506227000002
In making this announcement, the Government has recognised that onshore wind has made a valuable contribution to the UK energy mix in recent years but has now reached the point where there is enough capacity in the pipeline for the UK to meet its 2020 renewable electricity commitments. The grace period arrangements the Government have proposed are intended to protect investor confidence in the wider renewables sector and balance the interests of onshore wind developers with consumers, who pay the cost of onshore wind support through their energy bill.

In her statement to Parliament on 18 June, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said that she now wants to hear views from the industry and other stakeholders before framing the terms of the legislation to deliver the Manifesto Commitment. Further to this, on 7 July we announced further information on the proposed grace periods and the engagement process, which can be viewed online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewables-obligation-ro-grace-period-for-new-onshore-wind
In particular, we are interested in hearing from developers with projects that are currently in the planning system, but which have not yet secured planning consent, and to receive information and evidence relating to:
o the stage that such projects have reached in the planning process, anticipated final planning decision dates, and expenditure incurred on projects as at the date of the Secretary of State’s announcement;
o project timetables and anticipated dates for securing a grid connection offer and acceptance; and
o the prospects of such projects being in a position to accredit under the RO by 31 March 2017 and expected final investment decision dates.
Information on future stakeholder engagement events across the UK will be published on this page shortly. We will consider carefully the level of investment that developers are likely to bring forward under the proposals announced by the Secretary of State on 18 June.
I hope that this is helpful.
Yours sincerely,
DECC Correspondence Unit
DO PLEASE NOTE:
Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): My constituents will be delighted that we now have a Conservative Government, as under a coalition Government we would never have had this statement or this excellent Secretary of State at the Dispatch Box. I have it clear in my mind, but can my right hon. Friend confirm that if the Borough Council of Wellingborough turns down a planning application for a wind farm, its decision cannot be overturned by the Planning Inspectorate?
Amber Rudd: Yes, I can confirm that.
Source Government web site from debate in Parliament as per Hansard 22 Jun 2015 : Column 633
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewables-obligation-ro-grace-period-for-new-onshore-wind

In the light of the facts: Do bear in mind that you can make further representation to the Council, up until the 29-Jul-2015, and I would like to encourage you to write to let them know exactly why you oppose this inappropriate industrial development of Hanley Hill, so close to the very dangerous A48 that it is likely to exacerbate that danger, and visible, spoiling the visual amenity, over a very special area of Outstanding Natural Beauty of the Severn estuary – you might also wish to help by encouraging other members of the community to speak out and tell the truth about this odious application and just how environmentally damaging, inefficient and unreliable these giant wind turbines are.

If you need any further information do read the web site or by all means call me for a chat about it.

Regards,
Greg_L-W.

Greg Lance-Watkins
eMail: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com
Phone: 01594 – 528 337 – Calls from withheld numbers are blocked & calls are recorded

You are encouraged to circulate a similar letter in your own words if you are a member of the ‘Community’ or have an interest in the environment and the ‘Community’ and seek to help to oppose this opportunistic application.
Thanks.

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

PS – 52:

24-Jul-2015
(PS-52: Sec.State Rt.Hon. Amber Rudd Aviva speech on Climate Change)

My thanks to Guido Fawkes for the heads up on this item:

Having read through the speech Amber Rudd made at today’s Aviva climate change conference it is hard not to be impressed by the sound common sense expressed by her as the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary.

She starts off by paying due lip service to the we-really-ought-to-do-something-about-climate-change brigade:

“We are committed to taking action on climate change and we are clear that our long-term economic plan goes hand in hand with a long-term plan for climate action. Climate action is about security, plain and simple – economic security. If we don’t act, it will become increasingly hard to maintain our prosperity, protect our people and conserve our countryside.”

Then she correctly identifies what is really driving the climate change activists:

“It cannot be left to one part of the political spectrum to dictate the solution and some of the loudest voices have approached climate action from a left wing perspective. So I can understand the suspicion of those who see climate action as some sort of cover for anti-growth, anti-capitalist, proto-socialism.”

And finishes with a very sound quote from Maggie Thatcher:

“But in her 2002 book ‘Statecraft’, Margaret Thatcher was also sensible enough to ask the question “can global warming be checked at an acceptable price?”

If there really is a genuine threat from global warming the solution can and has to be, as Rudd correctly says, practical. The bottom line is we have to make sure that climate change action is pro-growth, pro-business, using free enterprise and competition to drive down the costs of climate action. That is still an “if”… 

It must be remembered that there is a very large body of highly qualified scientific opinion that the anthropogenic element of climate change and global warming is all but insignificant and there is cogent debate and a clear case to show that the entire change of climate and global shifts in temperature are nothing more than cyclical, as we have been able to identify some 29 major ice age periods in our planet’s history and subsequent global warming that pre date mankind.

Clearly Gaia is a stronger force than mankind could ever hope to be!

In reality the jury is very much out on the issue of the anthropogenic content of climate change and it seems that a new warmist theory has to be invented on a regular basis to account for the global temperature fluctuations that keep outdating their latest theory!

May I commend you read Amber Rudd’s speech in detail – just CLICK HERE

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.

PLEASE:
Help To Arm People
With The Truth & Facts
To Make Their Case & Defend Themselves

.

PS – 50:

22-Jul-2015
(PS-50: Letter from
The Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine Group
to members of the community)

Dear Resident,
Severndale Farm Wind Turbine – Planning Update
As you may be aware, the Forest of Dean District Council Planning Committee is now meeting to make a decision on this application on 11th August. The application was scheduled for the earlier Planning Committee meeting in July, but was withdrawn at the last minute following a very late and lengthy additional submission from the applicants.
You may already have received a letter from the Council dated 15th July (see attached), which sets out how you can make further comments before the Planning Committee meets in just over two weeks.
These comments need to be made quoting PO/365/15/FUL by 29th July 2015. So we have less than one week. The applicants requested that the meeting was brought forward hence the need for urgent action.
The purpose of this letter is to bring this matter to your attention again, as you have previously submitted Objections to the application. Like you, we are a Group of concerned local residents who are firmly opposed to the Application and wish to ensure that the Council’s Planning Committee are fully aware of the local community’s very real concerns and reservations.
The good news is that the Council’s Planning Officers are recommending the Application be refused. However, the final decision rests with the Committee members voting on a majority basis on the 11th August 2015 and nothing can be taken for granted.
It is therefore vitally important that as many residents as possible submit additional objecting comments, as set out in the attached letter, to ensure that the Committee members are fully aware that the Application does NOT have the backing of the local community. Under the latest Planning Guidelines issued by the UK Government in June 2015, this is a key consideration that the Committee must take into account.
We would therefore urge each member of your household to submit additional comments clearly stating again your objections. Please ask similar thinking neighbours to do the same especially if they have not previously commented. These can be sent as before via the FDDC website ’Planning Applications’ or by e-mail or post and need to include your name and address to demonstrate that you are indeed members of the “local community”.
These do not need to be long submissions, but the larger the number of individual objections submitted, which should be in your own words, the more powerful the message will be that the local community are opposed to this application. Almost 100 local people submitted objections earlier in the year and we would like to see this number increased so that the message is very clear to the members of the Planning Committee –
“The local community does not want this wind turbine”

Thank you for your support.

For and on behalf of the Community Against Severndale Wind Turbine Group.

We believe the information gathered on this site can act to bring the truth, regarding the dishonesty of the claimed benefits of Wind Turbines (WT) to the front of people’s minds as they are regularly taxed, in a hidden tax, on their energy bills to fund these politically correct and fundamentally all but useless monstrosities.

We have gathered a great deal of information in our efforts to prevent the industrialisation of Stroat and the banks of the Severn Estuary and across the wider area including the Forest of Dean (FoD) as administered by The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), areas of outstanding natural beauty (AoONB), sites of special scientific interest (SSI) & wildlife habitats.

Please help to spread the truth about the Wind Turbine scam and the fundamental flaws and lies of the ‘Warmists’ & self proclaimed ‘Greens’, which are presented as ‘fact’, regarding the anthropogenic influence of mankind on Global Warming and Climate Chance.

Arm yourself with facts to defeat the biggest con of the late 20th and early 21st Century, and do please spread the truth and the URL of this site as widely as you can.

Posted by: Greg Lance – Watkins (site owner)

If you would like more information about Stroat see: http://Stroat-Gloucestershire.com/

If you would like more information about Greg_L-W see: http://GregLanceWatkins.com/

E&OE

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept responsibility for material on links and other sources

IF you note ANY errors of fact in this or any other web site or blog I own or manage please bring it to my attention for correction @ Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com – Thank you.