11th November 2009
LOCAL WIND FARM CAMPAIGN COMES TO A CLOSE
Local wind farm campaign Stop the Spin has announced that it is winding up its operations after six months of intense activity.
The Stop the Spin campaign was created in June 2009 to highlight a "land-rush" of speculative planning applications for wind farms across the Daventry District of Northamptonshire and to make this a key political issue at a local and a national level.
"We feel we have now achieved everything that could reasonably be expected of an informal group of local residents", group spokesman Adrian Snook explained.
"Hundreds of local people have attended public meetings to debate the pro's and con's of local energy proposals. From the local perspective we have raised the issue with Daventry District Council and we have placed their planning problem on the desk of John Denham, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government."
"From the national perspective I debated the issue with Ed Milliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in a live television debate on BBC Newsnight. Group representatives have subsequently had a constructive meeting with officials at the Department for Energy & Climate Change."
"In the last month the wind farm planning crisis here in Daventry has been raised with the two main opposition parties at Shadow Minister level. We have also had useful discussions with one of the main UK environmental pressure groups to explain the legitimate concerns of local people."
"Finally, in the last few weeks group members have been working to support the introduction of a Private Members Bill specifying a 2 kilometre buffer zone between industrial wind turbines and local people. Whilst this will not make progress in this Parliamentary session an important line has been drawn in the sand ready for the the next General Election."
All of the local wind farm action groups active in Daventry have now been connected thanks to the work of Stop the Spin and they will continue to co-operate closely with each other under the auspices of the recently created National Alliance of Windfarm Action Groups (NAWAG).
The group swan-song was an article published by The Guardian on November 5th 2009 which highlighted the fact that current government policy on inland wind farm planning did not enjoy the support of rural voters.
The group is now disbanding and will leave the Daventry planning crisis in the hands of elected representatives, those in public office and those seeking public office.
We caution them all to remember the wise words of G.K. Chesterton in his great poem The Secret People:
'You may mock us and deride us, - but do not quite forget,
That we are the people of England,
And we havn't spoken yet.'
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