PLEASE can we bring your readers' attention to some serious inaccuracies in the report about the wind turbine project on last week's back page?
Firstly, the picture illustrating the wind turbine on Neds Top was from 2006 when a previous project was dropped because of public opposition. Severn Wye Energy Agency, the organisation responsible along with Lydney Area in Partnership, has since apologised to Neds Top residents for the inaccuracy of the picture; the turbine is shown provocatively sitting on top of residents' houses. The error was caused by a failure to appreciate that people live only a few hundred metres from the proposed turbine which is a colossal 300 feet to the tip. The nature of this scheme is entirely different to domestic small scale turbines.
Cllr Biddle has stated in writing that the intended wind turbine or wind farm would not be visible and only impact upon two houses when it is clear they would be visible from Neds Top, Oldcroft, Yorkley and upper Lydney. The known health issues that radiate from close proximity would impact on the people who live in all these communities. The national and international trend is towards locating large wind turbines at sea or on the coast. Cllr Biddle has never shown any evidence of considering other sites. Indeed, he has shown no regard for the landscape and the precedent his scheme will create for the entire Forest.
The story claims that the community will benefit, but fails to mention that the landowner, previously Cllr Biddle and now his neighbour, will benefit from a large payment for use of their land. This payment will remain generous for 20 years even if, as likely, the financial returns for 'local projects' fail to materialise.
The land itself is an important archaeological site and will require extensive surveying before turbines can be erected. The impact and cost of this matters little to Cllr Biddle because it is public money he is throwing away.
The scheme is called a 'community owned turbine' but there is no community involvement. Cllr Biddle has consistently failed to meet his critics and even ducked out of a Lydney Town Council meeting rather than discuss his project. Lydney Town Council has made it clear that LAiP are nothing to do with them. LAiP is unaccountable.
If the mast, the precursor to a wind turbine, is allowed to appear it will be an unforgiveable waste of public money and a monument to the supreme folly of an elected official who believes he knows best and is not prepared to listen. Even more tragic is the pretence that this project will in any way improve the supply of renewable energy. It will make a tiny contribution at a disproportionate cost. The obsession of Cllr Biddle to pursue this project has caused distress to many good people who deserve more consideration and we again ask him to reconsider. – Neds Top Residents Action Group.