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 If the green energy plans by the German Federal Government are implemented, the expansion of onshore wind energy will soon come to a standstill and then go into reverse. In early March, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel presented a draft for the amendment of the Renewable Energies Act (EEG). The new rules regulate the subsidy levels for renewable energy. The new regulations are to be adopted in coming months. A study by consultants ERA on behalf of the Green Party’s parliamentary group concludes that under these provisions the development of wind energy will collapse fairly soon. –Frank-Thomas Wenzel, Berliner Zeitung, 7 April 2016 China’s proposed investments |
Dysfunctional wind turbines!
Report the Harm Caused by Wind Turbines…
The Wind Industry’s Malicious & Unjustified Harm to Public Health
April 8, 2016 by
Wind power is a public health problem
Cape Cod Times
Lilli-Ann Green
7 March 2016
Wind turbine projects have previously been rejected in Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, Harwich, Dennis, Brewster, Barnstable and Bourne. Health concerns have been a major issue.
A Superior Court judge, hearing neighbor’ complaints that wind turbine noise constituted an intolerable “nuisance” that was causing “irreparable harm,” issued an injunction to curtail operations.
The “Falmouth experience” is not unique. Residents in at least 21 communities in Massachusetts (and hundreds of locations all over the world) have reported significant health problems as the result of living too close to wind turbines. Those problems include sleep disruption and deprivation, headaches, ear pressure, dizziness, nausea, problems with concentration and memory, fast heart rate, high blood pressure and panic episodes.
In a 2011 peer-reviewed journal article, Harvard-trained epidemiologist Carl Phillips wrote, “There is overwhelming evidence that wind turbines cause serious health problems in nearby residents … at a nontrivial rate. The bulk of the evidence takes the form of thousands of adverse event reports. … The attempts to deny the evidence cannot be seen as honest scientific disagreement, and represent either gross incompetence or intentional bias.”
Ambrose and Rand’s 2011 peer-reviewed journal article, presented at the InterNoise international conference, concluded there was “a strong correlation with wind speed, power output and health symptoms.” Research was conducted at one homeowner’s dream home in Falmouth, which was abandoned after wind turbines became operational nearby and cause health problems.
There is plenty of additional scientific and medical evidence of harm caused by wind turbines globally. This is not a “he said, she said” issue. The health impacts are real, and people report they become worse over time. It’s a dose response.
Affected people report not experiencing symptoms before wind turbines started operating near their home. The symptoms go away when they leave their homes. The conclusion is that wind turbines are causing their problems.
Many people living in the proximity of wind turbines are not informed about the potential health impacts of wind turbines by wind developers. Some people report they don’t start experiencing the symptoms until much after wind turbines begin operating. They don’t connect the symptoms they started to experience with wind turbines nearby, perhaps because of the dose response.
Approximately 13 wind turbines operate on Cape Cod and the Islands where people living nearby (over 1.25 miles away in several cases) have reported health problems.
What steps can one take?
It is important for those affected to report and create a record of the problem with their town health board and with Wind Wise Massachusetts (email lgreen@windwisema.org). Town health boards have the responsibility to residents and their families and to take action if there is a health problem in town.
Certainly most Barnstable County citizens don’t want to directly or indirectly cause harm to others. Furthermore, common sense dictates it shouldn’t be legally proper for one town to approve an industrial machine at its border with another town while knowing there is a potential to harm the health of residents of that town nearby.
The Cape’s state legislators have filed several bills to study health problems, educate health care providers and the public and to help people who have been adversely affected by wind turbines. It would be helpful if readers and local media supported the passage of these bills. Honest and unbiased research is needed so we can understand how to do no harm to people in the proximity of wind turbines by determining how close is too close. Only then could a regional comprehensive energy plan that does not harm the health and safety of people living and working nearby be drafted.
Cape Cod Times
Lili-Ann Green’s evidence to the Australian Senate Inquiry is available here: Lilli-Anne Green – no ‘Green’ Dupe – tells Senate: Wind Farm Health Impacts ‘Universal’
The Fightin’ Irish are Defending Their Home Turf!
Ireland’s Battle Against Wind Farm Rollout Escalates: Vestas Workers Receive Death Threats
April 2, 2016 by
On the Centenary of the 1916 Easter Uprising – its causes and consequences – soon became the hot topic in Ireland: for the Irish, deliberating and celebrating its underdog status (whether at arms, through its history, or trade) is almost a National pastime.
Underdogs or not, let there be no doubt about it: the Irish know how to fight. And their fighting spirit is no more evident when the threat faced is one to Irish homes and hearts.
True it is that hard-working, decent, rural people throughout the world are fighting back – to obtain sensible energy policies that support growth, development and vibrant, prosperous rural communities – against an industry with all the natural respect for property rights of Genghis Khan; and the moral fibre of Judas Iscariot.
Outfits like struggling Danish turbine maker, Vestas have ridden roughshod over communities across the globe. While Vestas might be able to bully and placate Danes on their home turf (thanks to theinstitutional corruption it conjured up for its own mercenary benefit), the Irish are a different mark. From the tactics employed, it’s clear that the Irish play for keeps.
A while back we covered the story of how a group of (probably) IRA Volunteers put the frighteners on a wind farm developer in Ulster, whose workers quickly responded to the message and fled: Irish Gunmen Raise Arms & Kill Off Threatened Ulster Wind Farm
While that event might have been seen as an aberration, it seems that Irish ‘Volunteers’ have no intention of bowing down to an industry as selfish and vindictive as any distant or internal political tyrant. In that vein, the stakes in terms of freedom from oppression, and autonomy of action, are not so different from what went before during the Irish ‘Troubles’.
With just as much fury and passion, the boys from Fermanagh have delivered a stern message to Vestas & Co: leave or be prepared for a bullet.
Denmark raises issue of death threats at ex-Quinn windfarm
The Independent
Gavin McLoughlin
27 March 2016
The Danish Ambassador to Ireland is set to meet Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald following the receipt of death threats against workers in Vestas, a Danish company operating a windfarm formerly owned by the Quinn Group.
The meeting between Carsten Sondergaard, the Danish Ambassador, Vestas and the Department of Justice officials is scheduled for Thursday.
Ms Fitzgerald, who is expected to attend the crisis meeting, had already sought a report on the matter, which has seen workers receive three bullets and a threatening letter, warning them to stay away from the Slieve Rushen windfarm.
Vestas told the Sunday Independent that the purpose of the meeting was to raise concerns and discuss possible solutions.
Representatives of Mantlin, which owns the windfarm and whose parent company is Europeaninvestment
firm Platina Partners, will also attend.
Mantlin has said it is very concerned about the message the incidents have been sending out aboutinvestment in Co Fermanagh.
Senior executives at Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), the company that bought the old Quinn packaging and building businesses, have also faced threats.
QIH has said the incidents will not “distract us from our drive to ensure that the company continues the strong growth which we have demonstrated”.
Sean Quinn Snr, who formerly led the Quinn Group, and who was appointed as a consultant to QIH in late 2014, has repeatedly spoken out against acts of intimidation in the region.
The Independent
When your entire business ‘model’ is to treat rural people with haughty disdain and merciless contempt, being presented with an ultimatum of the kind delivered in Fermanagh should come as no surprise.
Renewables….Never More than “Novelty Energy”!
Renewables are useless: The Evidence is Overwhelming
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Al Gore has a problem. He seems to want people to believe that only climate skeptics oppose renewables. The truth is, a small but growing number of prominent greens, openly acknowledge that renewables in their current form are not a scalable replacement for fossil fuels.
In Al Gore’s announcement of a climate witch hunt, titled “AGs United for Clean Power”, Al Gore said the following;
I really believe that years from now, this convening by attorney general Eric Schneiderman and his colleagues today, may well be looked back upon as a real turning point, in the effort to hold to account those commercial interests that have been, according to the best available evidence, deceiving the American people, communicating in a fraudulent way, both about the reality of the climate crisis and the dangers it poses to all of us, and committing fraud in their communications about the viability of renewable energy and efficiency, and energy storage, that together are posing this great competitive challenge to the long reliance on carbon based fuels.
Does Al Gore plan to prosecute James Hansen, Kerry Emanuel, Ken Caldeira and Tom Wigley for Fraud?
To solve the climate problem, policy must be based on facts and not on prejudice. The climate system cares about greenhouse gas emissions – not about whether energy comes from renewable power or abundant nuclear power. Some have argued that it is feasible to meet all of our energy needs with renewables. The 100% renewable scenarios downplay or ignore the intermittency issue by making unrealistic technical assumptions, and can contain high levels of biomass and hydroelectric power at the expense of true sustainability. Large amounts of nuclear power would make it much easier for solar and wind to close the energy gap.
Will the green believers at Google Corporation join James Hansen in the dock, when Al Gore prosecutes people who think renewables are not up to the job?
At the start of RE<C, we had shared the attitude of many stalwart environmentalists: We felt that with steady improvements to today’s renewable energy technologies, our society could stave off catastrophic climate change. We now know that to be a false hope … Renewable energy technologies simply won’t work; we need a fundamentally different approach.
Will Al Gore prosecute Rob Parker, president of the Australian Nuclear Association, for claiming renewables aren’t up to the job?
“My concern is that renewables won’t get us across the line in terms of emissions reduction,” said Rob Parker, the president of the ANA. “Nuclear is more reliable and it has a smaller resources footprint than renewables.
How about the British Government, whose relentless pursuit of renewables has utterly messed up the British energy market?
The second phase of modern energy policy began when Tony Blair signed the Renewable Energy Target in 2007.
What has this left us with?
We now have an electricity system where no form of power generation, not even gas-fired power stations, can be built without government intervention.
And a legacy of ageing, often unreliable plant.
Perversely, even with the huge growth in renewables, our dependence on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, hasn’t been reduced.
Read more: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/amber-rudds-speech-on-a-new-direction-for-uk-energy-policy
If Al Gore succeeds in using government bullying, to silence critics of renewables, the same disaster could easily occur in the United States.
Perhaps Al Gore’s real target are the practitioners of the “strange new form of denial”, the growing green schism which opposes the push for 100% renewables, as vigorously as any climate skeptic.
There is no evidence that renewables in their current form are a viable replacement for fossil fuels. But there is plenty of evidence that nuclear power delivers results. Nuclear power, the zero emission alternative to renewables, has been economically supplying 75% of France’s power since the 1970s. Nuclear power works, and works well. France demonstrated by doing, that mass production and economies of scale makes nuclear power affordable.
If the whole world copied what France did in the 1970s, by 2030 the world could cut billions of tons of CO2 emissions, without destroying the global economy.
If you are someone who cares about CO2 reductions, you should listen to scientists like James Hansen, who plausibly claim that nuclear power is the route to decarbonisation, not to scientific illiterates like Al Gore.
Are Birding Societies Finally Waking Up???
National bird advocacy group targets Niagara County wind turbine project
SOMERSET, N.Y. (WIVB) — A project by Apex Clean Energy to erect wind turbines in Niagara County has fallen under the radar of the American Bird Conservancy.
According to the group, a vast number of migratory songbirds and raptors rely on the area to breed and find food. The group says putting up 570-foot-tall structures will see many birds die when they collide with the new turbines.
The group suggests it’s one of the top 10 worst locations for a planned turbine site in the nation currently, and has urged Apex Clean Energy to look elsewhere.
It’s not yet clear if their voices have been heard, or if the allure of the breeze off Lake Ontario is simply overwhelming it.
The American Bird Conservancy says Apex continues to move forward with its studies as it makes a case to build.
Windpushers Bury the Truth About Health Effects from Wind Turbines!
Health repercussions due to windmills being kept under wraps…
Update Date: Mar 21, 2016
(Photo : Photo: Flickr/vrot01)
An ex-health director of Brown County in Wisconsin is among the latest who have reported health problems related to wind power.
According to a USA Today report, Chua Xiong claimed in an email that she gets migraine headaches when she visits Duke Energy’s Shirley Wind Farm. Her revelation came just as developers are eyeing more high-profile wind farm projects in Wisconsin. Xiong has since retired.
Brown County Citizens for Responsible Wind Energy (BCCRWE) claims that the email, sent by Xiong to an intern on Nov. 21, is further proof that the low-frequency sound from wind turbines caused some residents to suffer from health problems.
However, Xiong later stated the following month that there isn’t sufficient evidence to link the turbines to the migraine. That caused the BCCRWE to claim that Xiong made the statement in order to avoid litigation with Duke Energy, and that her inaction will result in the prolonged daily suffering of Brown County residents.
There are a long line of reports that wind turbines are causing health problems to those who live nearby.
In an article published by National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) entitled “Adverse health effects of industrial wind turbines”, it was reported that people who live or work near industrial wind turbines have experienced decreased quality of life, annoyance, stress, sleep disturbance, headache, anxiety, depression, and cognitive dysfunction. Suggested causes of symptoms include a combination of wind turbine noise, infrasound, dirty electricity, ground current, and shadow flicker.
In a 2009 article by The Telegraph, a New York paediatrician, Dr Nina Pierpont, identified about 12 different health problems associated with WTS that range from tachycardia [abnormal heart beat], sleep disturbance, headaches, tinnitus, nausea, visual blurring, panic attacks with sensations of internal quivering to more general irritability.
She said that the vibration and noise emitted by wind turbines can produce a range of symptoms which she has named “Wind Turbine Syndrome” or WTS.
Pierpont observed that the illnesses associated with WTS would disappear when the person moves away from the wind turbines.
She said she expected that the wind industry would try to discredit and disparage her for the statements.
Wind Turbines Harmful for Livestock, Too!
The Effect of Varying Distances from the Wind Turbine on Meat Quality of Growing-Finishing Pigs
“Avoiding noise-induced stress is important not only for maintaining meat quality but also for improving animal welfare.”
By Małgorzata Karwowska, Jan Mikołajczak, Zbigniew Józef Dolatowski and Sylwester Borowski
© by Małgorzata Karwowska. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Abstract
This study was conducted to assess the effect of rearing pigs at three different distances from a wind turbine (50, 500 and 1000 m) on the physicochemical properties and fatty acid composition of loin and neck muscles. The experiment was carried out on 30 growing-finishing pigs, derived from Polish Landrace × Polish Large White sows mated to a Duroc × Pietrain boar. The results obtained during the noise measurement showed that the highest level of noise in the audible and infrasound range was recorded 50 m from the wind turbine. Rearing pigs in close proximity to the wind turbine (50 m) resulted in decreased muscle pH, total heme pigments and heme iron as well as reduced content of C18:3n-3 fatty acid in the loin muscle. Loins of pigs reared 50 m from the wind turbine were characterized by significantly lower iron content (6.7 ppm g–1) compared to the loins of pigs reared 500 and 1000 m from the wind turbine (10.0–10.5 ppm g–1). The concentration of α-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3) in loin and neck muscles decreased as the distance from the wind turbine increased. Avoiding noise-induced stress is important not only for maintaining meat quality but also for improving animal welfare.
[…]
Summary
In summary, a significant negative influence of noise generated by the wind turbine with a capacity of 2 MW on the quality of growing-finishing pig loin muscles was determined. Rearing growing-finishing pigs in close proximity to the wind turbine resulted in lower pH, total heme pigments and heme iron as well as lower content of C18:3n-3 fatty acid of loin muscles. In this sense, it is crucial to reduce the exposure of animals to noise generated by wind turbines in order to avoid negative effects on meat quality.
County in Ireland Dodges a Windpusher’s Bullet!
Plans for country’s biggest windfarm halted
PUBLISHED 26/03/2016
1Campaigners have welcomed a decision by planners to refuse permission for the country’s biggest wind farm.
Cork-based Planree Ltd had proposed spending €200m erecting 49 turbines on a route from the Bluestack Mountains to Castlefin in Co Donegal.
However, An Bord Pleanála (ABP) spent a year and €115,000 in costs examining the proposal for the turbines, some 150 metres high. The board voted four to one against the plans.
ABP said the wind farm was in close proximity to especially high scenic areas and a number of protected areas.
It criticised Planree’s environmental impact statement saying it was “inadequate” and had failed to assess the potential impact on a number of bird species, including whooper swans and Greenland white-fronted geese.
ABP said it was not satisfied the proposals “would not have a significant adverse effect on the ecological environment” and “would not adversely affect the integrity of certain European sites in view of those sites’ conservation objectives”.
Finn Valley Wind Action Group welcome the decision as “a victory for common sense”.
Spokeswoman Marie Scanlon said the wind farm would have covered 40 square kilometres.
“Among the experts involved in preparing our group’s response were internationally renowned experts in the field of acoustics, hydrogeology, ornithology and landscape assessment,” she said.
“Donegal County Council has deemed that 95pc of our county is suitable for wind farm development and this decision shows once again that this policy needs to be changed.
“We will oppose any attempt to re-submit the application in any other guise,” Ms Scanlon added.
Irish Independent
Doctor’s Support the Residents Suffering from Wind Turbine Noise & Infrasound…
Wind Farm Noise Rules Irrelevant: It’s What Neighbours are Forced to Suffer that Counts
March 25, 2016 by
****
In our timeline post – Three Decades of Wind Industry Deception: A Chronology of a Global Conspiracy of Silence and Subterfuge – we covered the fact that – from 1995 – the wind industry drew together a hand-picked team with a mission to write noise rules with absolutely no relevance to wind turbine noise; and, therefore, of no benefit to wind farm neighbours (with predictable and soul-destroying results).
Massachusetts MD, William Hallstein makes precisely the point in this well-aimed missive.
William Hallstein, MD letter to Falmouth
Wind Action.org
William Hallstein, MD
14 January 2016
This letter written by William Hallstein, MD, a practicing psychiatrist with over 40 years of experience, was delivered to the Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals. Dr. Hallstein is also a resident of Falmouth Massachusetts. In his letter he explains the very real impact the Falmouth turbines on human health.
To: Zoning Board of Appeals,
Falmouth, MA
From: William Hallstein, MD Subject: Wind turbine permitting
Dear Members of the Zoning Board of Appeals,
I am submitting this letter for your consideration as you contemplate the matter of whether or not to issue a permit for the wind turbines. In way of introduction I am a psychiatric physician and Falmouth resident since 1970.
This year I will have been practicing medical psychiatry for 49(forty nine) years. Consultation/liaison psychiatry has been my focus. This means sorting out diagnostic questions about intertwined medical/psychiatric illnesses, the most difficult diagnostic questions in medicine, whether in a general hospital, locked psychiatric unit or maximum security prison.
I will be brief and to the point as I explain why I urge you to deny a permit for the Falmouth wind turbines.
The human nervous system is the most sensitive instrument available to date for evaluating the impact of the Falmouth wind turbines on residents who live close to them.
The ONLY experts in the discussion are the people who are sensing the sound, vibrations, pressure waves, etc emitted by the turbines. There is no one more “expert” than these people. No so called expert has either equipment nor information more accurate and sensitive than the affected residents’ nervous systems.
NO instruments more sensitive than people have been invented! Others who claim to be experts are peddling smoke and mirrors in an effort to invalidate and discredit the affected residents.
Also, other turbines in other places are not the issue, since local topography must be considered. The impact of the Falmouth wind turbines on Falmouth residents who live nearby is all that is relevant. I believe they are definitely hurting people living near them and encourage you to NOT permit the turbines, now, long after they were constructed illegally.
Over the past few years I have spent significant amounts of time in the vicinity of the turbines in an effort to understand what the affected residents are describing.
My findings were unanticipated and surprised me. I was not prepared for the intensity and intrusiveness of both sound and vibration felt consistently and repeatedly throughout the years of my studying the phenomena on location.
I recall my introduction to the sound of “low flying jet airplanes” overhead loud enough to interrupt conversation; and, of course, the “planes” kept coming one after another in endless sequence with each rotation of a turbine blade!!!
I was searching the sky looking for the aircraft when my eye caught the turbine blades, and then it all made sense, of course; no aircraft in sight, only Wind I blades. Later on, as I leaned against one of the houses in the neighborhood, I felt an unusual sensation best described as compression, coupled with a rhythmic vibration felt through my feet. Anyone who discredits, demeans and calls the affected turbine neighbors “crazy” hasn’t done his or her homework, in addition to being mean spirited.
The homework is not difficult: stand in the turbine neighborhood for as long as I have and feel what happens to you. The sensations are real and disturbing. It is totally clear to me that I could not live within the radius of influence of the turbines, and I have no idea how the neighbors who are in the turbine area can sustain a healthy quality of life.
Against the backdrop of what I have learned from personal experience with the effect of the turbines I see the Town of Falmouth trying to crush the residents impacted by the turbines.
Let’s move on to sleep disturbance and sleep deprivation which is the bedrock of the area of medicine in which I have worked for 49 years! Sleep disturbance is not a trivial matter, even though it has been trivialized by the Falmouth Board of Health.
Children with inadequate sleep perform poorly academically, emotionally and physically(they present a higher than normal incidence of physical illnesses).
For ANYONE (athletes, truck drivers
, ship operators, aircraft pilots, lawyers and physicians, et al) sleep deprived and fatigued, errors in judgement increase, accident rates increase, in addition to physical and emotional symptoms and cognitive impairment. In the world of medical observation all varieties of illnesses are destabilized secondary to inadequate sleep:diabetic blood sugars become labile and erratic, cardiac rhythms become irregular, migraines erupt and increase in intensity, tissue healing is retarded, to list a few across the entire range of physical illnesses.
Psychiatric problems intensify as the sleep deprived brain decompensates; mood disorders become more extreme and psychotic signs and symptoms more severe.
People with no previously identified psychiatric illness are destabilized by sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation experiments have repeatedly been terminated because test subjects become psychotic; they begin to hallucinate auditory and visual phenomena.
They develop paranoid delusions. This all happens in the “normal” brain. Sleep deprivation has been used as an effective means of torture and a technique for extracting confessions.
I could work my way through 49 years of observing sleep disturbances and deprivation, but that is more than the scope of this letter. I am writing because I have witnessed Town of Falmouth officials and members of other boards trivialize symptom reports from people who are stalwart residents of the Town of Falmouth.
I have witnessed attempts by town officials and other board members to discredit people whom I believe the wind turbines are hurting. Furthermore, all the Wind I neighbors I have examined are passionate about the need for sustainable energy in an effort to reduce fossil fuel dependence.
I see no honest way for the ZBA to issue a permit for the Falmouth wind turbines. Basically, as I see it, the town installed commercial wind generating power plants in a residential neighborhood.
William Hallstein, MD
Windscam Fighters Achieve Success!
If You’re Going through Wind Farm Hell, Then Keep Going
March 24, 2016 by
****
What impresses STT most is the tenacity and perseverance of community defenders, all over the Globe.
Pro-farming (REAL farming, that is), pro-community and pro-real power groups are better informed and organised, and more vocal and hostile, than ever before.
Hard-working, decent, rural people throughout the world are fighting back – to obtain sensible energy policies that support growth, development and vibrant, prosperous rural communities – against an industry with all the natural respect for property rights of Genghis Khan; and the moral fibre of Judas Iscariot.
These are entirely reasonable people who have tumbled to the fact that they have been lined up as “road-kill” by their political betters to suffer the consequences of a policy built around an insanely expensive, utterly unreliable, intermittent power source – that can only survive on a raft of massive subsidies; kills millions of birds and bats; destroys communities;drives people from their homes; and otherwise makes life misery for thousands around the world.
These people are out to smash a “policy” that – in a few years time, when it all inevitably collapses – will be revealed for what it is: an enormous government-backed Ponzi scheme, the foundations for which are greed and stupidity; and the “justification” for which can only be described as a circus of the bizarre.
STT would like to think that we’ve helped these dedicated individuals and groups a little, by providing them with the kind of factual ammunition that cuts directly across the treachery, lies and deceit – which are the tools-in-trade for the wind industry, its goons and parasites.
But, whatever the source of information, pro-community groups are in earnest when it comes to protecting all that they’ve toiled for.
These days, whenever a wind farm is proposed; or the developer is out in the field – literally ‘thumping’ its message home (see our post here) – the term most employed to cover the community’s response is ‘OUTRAGE’.
However, occupying the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, is the infectious, fun-filled term: ‘REJOICE’ – which is the only word powerful enough to capture the sense of victory and relief, for those who have spent thousands of relentless, unpaid hours dedicated to the defence of their communities, their homes, their farms, their businesses and their families.
In Britain, dogged community defenders are winning the Battle for Britain; skirmish by skirmish; village by village; town by town.
The wind industry is being pummelled by an environment in which the massive and endless subsidies upon which the scam essentially depends have been slashed – never to return.
And in which community defenders have been finally (and quite rightly) given a say about the protection and preservation of their common law rights – little rights, like the right to own and enjoy property; free from the unlawful interference of sleep-killing, incessant turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound.
Here’s yet another example of how perseverance and tenacity trumps the subsidy-soaked malice exhibited by an industry peopled with career criminals, chancers and second-hand car salesman.
West Pinchbeck campaigners win four-year campaign to defeat wind farm
Spalding Guardian
17 March 2016
Campaigners have won their four-year battle to stop a wind farm being built at West Pinchbeck.
The words “We Have Won!” next to a picture of two filled champagne glasses appeared on the Stop West Pinchbeck Wind Farm website after South Holland District Council (SHDC) ruled the Wind Ventures Ltd application had run out of time for an appeal against non-determination.
“I think the fact that our overwhelming emotion is relief is probably an indication of how much we have been affected just by the threat of this terrible development, and over a prolonged period.”
Campaigner Sue Blake
This means the application is dead in the water.
Leading campaigner Tony Fear said: “We are of course delighted even though it does feel a little bit odd that it just fizzled out in this way.
“The real good news is that there can be no appeal so it is genuine closure.”
The wind farm, with its nine turbines measuring 126m to the tip, would have been sited on Fen Farm, South Fen – a site known as The Delph – and sandwiched between two nature reserves.
Sue Blake, from the campaign group, said: “I think the fact that our overwhelming emotion is relief is probably an indication of how much we have been affected just by the threat of this terrible development, and over a prolonged period.”
South Holland and The Deepings MP John Hayes joined the battle at West Pinchbeck and in April, 2014 he said the Conservatives were devising a policy to scrap subsidies for onshore wind farms.
The former energy minister said then that “the threat of onshore wind will be removed with the subsidies”.
Mr Hayes also said residents would get the final say on wind farm applications.
Wind farm victim Jane Davis, who was forced to quit her Deeping St Nicholas home through turbine noise, this week highlighted the timing of the news on The Delph application as the Bill honouring the pledges to end public subsidies and to give residents the final say had its third reading in the House of Commons.
Mrs Davis said: “The end of this application removes a severe threat to residential amenity, health and wildlife in the surrounding area.
“My husband (Julian) and I are very pleased with the decision by SHDC to ‘time out’ the application.
“This was a correct decision given the wishes of the local people in the area, and the emerging knowledge of the significant ways that noise pollution, particularly low frequency industrial noise pollution can impact on people’s health.
“From a personal perspective we ran a very high risk of having a relative’s home significantly impacted upon, something we were dreading, and it would also have impacted on many friends as well. There is perhaps an irony that this application has been terminated ten years exactly after Deeping St Nicholas Wind farm started construction.
“Given the proximity to Willow Tree Fen nature reserve this application would have caused immeasurable harm to birdlife in particular.
“Visually the development would have further impacted on the locality which already has windfarms visible at Bicker, Deeping St Nicholas, Thorney and other small projects, with the likelihood of ever larger turbines being placed at Heckington Fen in the foreseeable future. The area is known for its cloudscapes and wide skies and this would have been damaged irreparably.
“Finally the proposed project was insignificant in terms of national energy production and would not have helped keep the lights on.”
By 2014, Stop West Pinchbeck Wind Farm campaigners had already spent £5,000 fighting the proposal for The Delph.
One strand of the fight involved demanding Wind Ventures carry out a new birdsurvey after the campaigners’ expert found flaws in the way data was collected.
Sue Blake said this week it is more than four years since residents heard of the proposal.
She said: “Believe it or not the developer failed to identify that the proposed site was adjacent to two nature reserves and therefore wholly inappropriate for an industrial scale wind farm, which is why it received vehement objections from Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.
“At a ‘standing room only’ community meeting in July 2012 the developer was faced with unanimous objections from the local community. They chose to ignore all of this opposition, refusing to see that the there was no way to satisfactorily address the negative impacts, not least the impact of things like noise on nearby residents.
“We are delighted that recent changes in Government policy means that it is now much more difficult for developers to get planning permission for onshore wind farms not least because the concerns of the local community must be taken seriously, something which Wind Ventures failed to do from the outset. If they had they could have saved everyone, including themselves, a huge amount of needless stress, time and money.”
Spalding Guardian
Julian and Jane Davis, referred to above, successfully obtained a £2million out of court settlement from a wind farm operator, for noise nuisance; and the resultant loss of property value (the home became uninhabitable due to low-frequency noise, infrasound and vibration).
The Particulars of Julian and Jane Davis’ Claim are available here: Davis Complaint Particulars of Claim
And Jane Davis’ Statement (detailing their unsettling experiences and entirely unnecessary suffering) is available here: davis-noise-statement
The Davis claim was made under the common law tort of nuisance: for more on the law of nuisance, and the ability to launch a pre-emptive strike to stop these things from being built: Injunction Sought to Protect Neighbours’ Health from Wind Farm Noise
Don’t let the task daunt; don’t give up; and never give in.
"Mothers Against Wind Turbines™" Phoenix Rising... 