we want a wind farm

At the Wind Farm Debate broadcast live on Saint FM last night, SIEGE campaigners admitted lying to the public in their campaign to prevent a wind farm being developed at Middlewick on the Dengie peninsula.

Scaremongering photo from the SIEGE website showing wind turbines towering over Southminster High Street. It is captioned on their site as being an "Accurate scale Illustration of the view of the Turbines from Southminster High St."

A member of the audience – Denis Walker, co-ordinator of South East Essex Friends of the Earth – asked the following question of SIEGE:

“If your case is as strong as you make out, why do you lie about the way you present your information? On the front page of your website, you have a photo which has been photoshopped to put wind turbines in it and they are towering Godzilla-like over Southminster High Street. Ridgewind’s version of that photo shows that none of them will in fact be visible at all.”

Pip Thorogood replied that at the time they distributed a leaflet with the image on it, they believed it to be correct. He went on to say that the organisation now knows it not to be correct. However, at the time of publication, the image is still present on the front page of the SIEGE website with the caption “Accurate scale Illustration of the view of the
Turbines from Southminster High St.”

Westborough Primary School in Westcliff on Sea brought forward a plan in 2008 to construct a wind turbine in the school to inspire children. Sadly a vocal minority of residents objected to the scheme and a grossly irresponsible council (on a majority vote) rejected the application. But the school has not given up the fight to encourage children to gain an insight into how an environmentally sound future might look, and the issue has been referred on appeal to the planning inpector.  A decision is expected imminently.

Undeterred by the ignorance of some, a proposal for a wind turbine in the new Hinguar Primary School in Shoeburyness has been made. The school has submitted an application for a 15 metre turbine, with an eye on the new feed in tariff scheme, and the potential to sell electricity back tho the grid when the school is unoccupied.

This application is at a very early stage and needs the support of residents if it is to overcome the hostility of councillors, many of whom have failed to grasp the perilous state of the nation’s energy supplies.