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WHAT A COCKUP!
"I'm fed up of all these
signs they've put up along the road. They make it look like we're
all a bunch of NIMBYs out here - and I'm not."
Anyone passing through the Maer Hills area
could not fail to notice evidence of opposition to the wind turbine
development. But the fact is that the highly organised anti-wind campaign is as much
a result of the developer's cack-handed handling of their public
relations as anything else, even though most people either actively
support the development or have no strong opinion either way.
Claymoss (the developer) have only
themselves to blame for the way in which they have repeatedly played
into the hands of their opponents and made things difficult for
their natural supporters.
The original Claymoss plans were for a
holiday camp with two hotels and 800 chalets (now scrapped) as well
as the four wind turbines. It was a crazy scheme and it was obvious
that it would never work. And not surprisingly it ran into stiff
opposition whilst those who would normally be natural supporters of
wind energy schemes felt they could not openly support the scheme.
Coupled with this Claymoss failed to market
themselves to the local community - to this day there is very little
information about who they are, their track record and aspirations.
Not surprisingly people became cynical and distrusting.
But Claymoss held on to their plans for the
eco-village for nearly two years providing the anti-campaigners open
season to build up their opposition virtually unchallenged - and
then just a couple of weeks before submitting their planning
application they announced that the holiday village plans were
scrapped - giving very little time for the supporters of the wind
project to re-group.
The information provided on Claymoss
websites remains patronisingly over simplified, diabolically sketchy
and rather than making their Environmental Impact Statement
available online (now online at
www.windenergyatmaer.co.uk ) they tried to sell copies at £500 a
time -
which gave the impression that they wanted to prevent anyone from
ever reading it.
This means that key opinion formers in the
community have little to go on - and nothing to help misconceptions
and untruths that the information vacuum have lead to.
For this Claymoss have nobody but
themselves to blame - and it may yet cost them a two year delay to
the project. Meaning a loss of two years' worth of renewable energy
that the planet desperately needs.
In spite of this catalogue of errors the
wind energy scheme still deserves support - and we urge everyone who
understands the urgency of the crisis facing the planet to write and
support the planning proposal.
Maer Hills Action Group
set up by
local people in response to the proposal to build wind turbines at
Maer Hills
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