Friday 28 December 2012


(This letter has been been recently mailed to the 77 Lincolnshire County Councillors)

Dear Councillor, 

We are a group of Lincolnshire residents who are concerned with recent pronouncements from Lincolnshire County Council on the development of wind farms in Lincolnshire.
The recent survey launched on the County Council web site is preceded by this statement. A tough stand against wind farms has already been taken by Lincolnshire County Council, and we’d like to make that official policy. However, it’s only right that we should first ask your opinion”.
Our questions are these;

  •      Why incur costs to create official policy on matters outside your statutory duties?
  •           Are you not contravening DCLG code of recommended practice for Local Authority publicity, particularly the reference to balance and factual accuracy?

  “Local authorities should ensure that publicity relating to policies and proposals from central government is balanced and factually accurate. Such publicity may set out the local authority’s views and reasons for holding those views, but should avoid anything likely to be perceived by readers as constituting a political statement, or being a commentary on contentious areas of public policy.” https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/5670/1878324.pdf
  •        Is an online survey, containing questions with a degree of bias, launched within a very narrow time frame, really the best way to gain a mandate for “official policy” ?

In our view it is essential that a proven, efficient, low carbon technology such as wind should be dealt with impartially by our planning authorities. The world is changing and we must accept that “business as usual” is a rapidly vanishing option. The government’s renewed commitment to the potentially damaging search for shale gas admirably indicates the level of desperation regarding the future of UK energy supply.

We need to install at least double the current capacity of on shore wind generation by 2020 to get within touching distance of the UK’s commitment to renewable energy. Virtually all the units of electricity we produce with wind power conserve gas resources for the future. We should not be advocating, directly or indirectly, the unnecessary consumption of this irreplaceable fuel.

In conclusion, wind power has a significant capacity to help boost the Lincolnshire economy. Please find the time to read more about the economic impact of wind turbines online at Economic impacts of onshore wind

We ask for your support to prevent the creation of an “official” anti-wind farm policy by Lincolnshire County Council.

Yours sincerely    

James Pocklington
On behalf of Lincolnshire Pro Wind Alliance



These are the on line survey questions                   and my comments
2. Wind farms should play a part in meeting Lincolnshire’s future energy needs *
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
No opinion

Wind farms are part of a national strategy to install renewable energy for the UK.
Is it feasible or even desirable to demand that electricity generated in Lincolnshire is consumed in Lincolnshire?

3. Any wind farm development should give due regard to other social and environmental considerations *
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
No opinion

It is extremely unlikely that anyone would disagree with that statement so why ask it?
4. How important are the following factors in deciding where to locate new wind farm developments?


All of the following factors are important considerations in the location of wind farms.


a. The impact on Lincolnshire’s landscapes, including areas of outstanding natural beauty and coastal conservation *
Very important
Important
Not very important
Not important at all
No opinion

All wind farms are a visual intrusion to the Lincolnshire landscape, you cannot hide them.
How they impact our perception of the view depends on how much importance we attach to their function.


b. The impact on areas of historic or scientific interest *
Very important
Important
Not very important
Not important at all
No opinion


Every planning application needs to be assessed thoroughly to determine the impact of wind turbines on any location, including historic and SSSI.

c. The impact on the day-to-day lives of residents *
Very important
Important
Not very important
Not important at all
No opinion


Technical solutions have been introduced to minimise impact on nearby residents, but the degree to which they effect an individual does appear to be related to a general acceptance of wind farm function. Where wind farm installations directly benefit the community the levels of acceptance within the community are much higher.

d. The impact on the county’s tourism economy
Very important
Important
Not very important
Not important at all
No opinion


Apart from the anecdotal, is there any evidence that wind farms significantly affect visitor numbers?
A recent DECC survey found that only 12% of those interviewed opposed the use of on shore wind. You can find the public attitudes tracking survey at;


5. The council’s guidelines should be taken into consideration by local planning authorities and developers when deciding where to locate new developments *
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
No opinion

There is no statutory requirement for the county council to have their view considered and that should remain the case. The council should commit resources to their existing statutory challenges and not seek out fresh ones.

.

5 comments:

  1. Excellent analysis of the LCC's silly survey, James Well Done!

    Slightly tangentially, I suspect we may have a lot in common with the anti-windfarm lobby when it comes to shale-gas fracking. I don't think many people realise how close we are to a great expansion of gas exploitation in our corner of Lincolnshire. Licenses are in place for a number of areas and there are plans to expand the Keddington oil field to exploit the potential for gas in deeper rocks there and to the east around North Somercotes. Our area is underlain by shales which form the hydrocarbon source for the oil and gas that is currently produced from the overlying permeable rocks at Keddington and Skidbroke/Saltfleetby. It's those underlying shales that could be exploited for gas if fracking were to be used. To see how close we are to this becoming reality take a look at this slide presentation from Egdon Resources, the company with, I think, a majority stake in the Keddington field. http://www.egdon-resources.com/userfiles/file/EDR_AGM_Presentation_December%202012.pdf

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  2. The Winter 2013 edition of County News arrived today. It has a two anti-windfarm propaganda spread including a paper version of the survey with a freepost address to send one's form to. How can Lincolnshire County Council justify this spending?

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  3. Have you seen the Louth Leader? Terrible piece swallowing REF nonsense. http://www.louthleader.co.uk/news/environment/study-finds-flawed-economics-of-wind-farms-1-4636257
    The REF are an anti-windfarm loy group. See
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Energy_Foundation

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  4. Thank you James, i wrote to LCC with an official complaint about the survey and questioned pretty much each and every question you did with similar logical issues.
    I wonder if there is anyone at the University of Lincoln who cold reiterate the issues we raised but with a sound academic backing?

    I think the survey was designed to give one answer and one answer only, which is of course completely wrong.

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  5. thank you for this, I made a similar complaint to LCC raising all the same issues. It really does seem that he survey was created to produce one answer and one answer only. May be there is someone at the University who can provide some academic backing to what we believe was a biased and unscientific survey.

    ReplyDelete

We are happy to publish comments constructive to the debate, particularly ones that are implicitly factual. To speed up the comments process the anonymous user facility is available but I will only publish and respond to comments if I know who you are :) That way we shall all remain accountable for what we say.