3 MARCH

Our March Newsletter was delivered this week by Janet's army in Ringstead, by Peter Dawson and his team in Raunds and Stanwick, by Harry and Janet Mayes in Great Addington and Valerie Bilson in Little Addington.  Our thanks to you all.  In all, over two and a half thousand newsletters were distributed.

We have had a very successful last week or two.  First we have been able to fly the balloon on 5 days in excellent conditions with near perfect visibility. This gave the opportunity to many people to be able to see for themselves the scale of the impact the proposed turbines would have on their lives.  We invited many local councillors including representatives of the Planning Committee at ENDC to come and have a look for themselves.  I know that they have taken this offer up.  We also had many pictures taken from various points around the village and nearby areas, these will be useful in our ongoing campaign and hopefully we will be able to post them on this site in the near future. 

We are indebted in particular to Peter Crowhurst and Mike Williams and his wife Pat who have contributed a huge amount of time and effort to ensure the success of this project.

Secondly, yesterday we had a coffee morning hosted by Roger and Chris Kinsey, which was a tremendous success in every way.  One of the most important things to come out of this event was the discussion and interest that the balloon had created.  Many people came through the morning and by 11.30 there was no room in the house!  Roger Helmer MEP kindly attended and registered his support for our group.  A photographer from the Evening Telegraph came to take pictures, hopefully we will see the results shortly.  We are enormously grateful to eveybody who came and especially to those who contributed to the cake stall and raffle. From our first calculations it seems we have raised more than £500.  Many thanks to Roger and Chris Kinsey for the use of their house and for arranging such a fantastic and successful event.

As far as Volkswind's application is concerned there is little information that is new.  It does seem as if there are further delays and we are now expecting them to present their application no sooner than a few weeks from now.
Shaun


Sunday 3rd January 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all except wind farm developers.  Their year, according to a Guardian report on 1 January ended badly.  I quote "Britain's Wind Farm Industry  finished the year on a low note ....." with yet more failures to secure planning permission.  More than ever, we need to push for a national debate with a view to getting, at the very least, a minimum separation distance from turbines to houses.  If a statutory agreement could be achieved of one and a half miles separation, planning authorities would not find themselves in the chaotic, costly, time consuming mess they are forced into by rapacious and deceitful developers.

Whatever happens nationally, our fight goes on here.  Peter Dawson has been busy with the Raunds campaign and has secured three meetings with local councils in January.  They are at: Hargrave, Stanwick and Raunds.  We need to extend this to include The Addingtons, Woodford and Denford.  John Barnes is working on this.

A fund raising coffee morning at Chris and Roger Kingsey's house on Saturday 30 January at 15 Carlow Street, Ringstead between 10 and 12.30.  Everyone welcome.  There will be a cake stall, a raffle and an art painting demonstration.  The same weekend, all being well, we will be flying the balloon over Ringstead.  Peter Crowhurst is taking charge of the arrangements for this and will liaise with Janet Williams who will organise the advertising and promotion of both events.  We need to support these as much as we can and all help will be appreciated.  Janet can be contacted on 07801 594 534.

I am away until 20 January and in my absence, Geri Rowe will update this blog if necessary.  The support that our group has had so far has been staggering and I apologise to anyone who has offered help and has not so far been included.  Your time will come.  There is going to be a long campaign ahead and people are offering new ideas and support all the time.  What Volkswind may not yet realise, but which they surely will, is that the people of Ringstead, Raunds and surrounding area are up for the mother of all battles to stop their grubby little plans for our corner of East Northants. 

The wind is in our sails, not theirs.
Shaun


Friday 18th Dec

Friday 6th February

We have added a new forum to the website. To post you need to join the website by becoming a member.
Join now and add some comments to the threads we have started or start a new thread of your own.

Sunday 31 January 2010

S.T.A.R is now preparing to formalise our research in readiness for our response to Volkswind's application, which we expect soon.  We are currently speaking to specialist advisors who will assist with our document.  Some of this advice and preparation will cost significant amounts of money; as ever, we welcome all donations.  We have a Bring and Buy event on 20th March from 10 to 1 pm at Ringstead Social Club.  This will hopefully raise some money but we need more events and ideas.  Please give it some thought.

A couple of recent events have highlighted the tactics and modus operandi of the wind farm developers.  At Oundle recently a group of activists believed to be acting at the behest of West Coast Energy were canvassing for support for that company's plans to develop the Barnwell Manor Wind Farm.  It appears that the inntention was to amass lots of signatures of support for the wind farm on  the basis that it would help save the planet.  A simplistic undemocratic tactic that stifles real debate.  The second example is a letter published in the community newsletter for the Addington area.  In it, Volkswind state that they have support from the majority of people in the area and that they are holding continuing dialogue with local people.  Both of these statements are of course untrue. 

These incidents give us a foretaste of what to expect.  Truth, accuracy and morality are not allowed to get in the way of making substantial profits.  There is both comedy and tragedy in this.   The comic notion of well meaning, honest and sincere people doing the dirty work for the developers in contrast to the tragedy that may still afflict our planet no matter how many wind farms are crammed into East Northants.

There is a Wind Conference taking place in Darlington on 6th March.  We hope that eventually proper reasoned and honest debate about wind energy will result from the increasing pressure of protest groups like ours.  We have two representatives from S.T.A.R attending, Mike Williams and Roger Kinsey.  Hopefully a sharing of ideas can help us all in our preparations to fight wind farm developments.

We will keep you posted.

Shaun

Raunds Council Meeting Thursday evening:

The brief meeting went as well as we could have hoped and it does seem as if the Council is well aware of the feeling in the locality and seems to be, from what we can ascertain, opposed to the development of the wind farm.  What we hoped for was to demonstrate that we merited a broader hearing and this we achieved.  
 

Evening Telegraph:

Following our letter of introduction which was sent to the ET I got a phone call yesterday asking for an interview which was done by phone today.

I think that they are going to produce a small item about our group either tomorrow (Sat) or early next week.  What I was told, which was very encouraging, is that they will be happy to give us greater coverage at any of our events in the future.  The reporter seemed well informed and it does seem as if they want to make an issue of it.

Wow what a surprise today! Thanks to Peter we have a fantastic new sign up in lights and I am sure more will appear. Every day gets busier and I am begining to think I will have to do this full time. It is amazing that so many people are so keen to really be involved. It shows what a huge depth of feeling there is locally against the Wind Farm.

The coffee morning was a huge success with far more people coming than I anticipated and most wanted to know more about the Wind Farm and what they could do to stop it. Lots of letters were written and other people went away promising to write. Thanks to MOBIUS Business Services who lent us their office space.

December
So far we have held a committee meeting where we had so many people we had to move to the Social Club in Ringstead because my lounge was too small. We decided to run a coffee morning to talk to more people locally and encourage more people to write letters. We also arranged for the delivery of the newsletter. We have printed a thousand copies and I hope that will be enough!

 November

During October people in Ringstead became concerned about the Proposal to build a Wind Farm so close to our Village and decided to form of an action group, (S.T.A.R), Stop Turbines At Ringstead, which is committed to trying to stop this proposed development. I have been elected Chair of the group and through this BLOG I will let people know what is happening.   S.T.A.R.  is made up of local people and represents the clear majority of residents who feel the proposed development is inappropriate due to its size and location.

We have grave concerns about many issues relating to the proposed wind farm.  From our continuing discussions with local families it is clear that there is genuine unease about the following:

1.         The noise from the turbines

2.         The shadow flicker effect

3.         The threat to wildlife

4.         The danger to road users

5.         The devaluation of properties

6.         The ruin of local landscape

There are other issues that are also mentioned including the effect on radar and the possible geological threat to the church, we are currently looking into these.

Each single issue that concerns us is exacerbated by the size, proximity and location of the turbines.  We feel that turbines over 125 metres high on an elevation approximately 30 metres above Church Road and Station Road will dominate the skyline and loom over the village of Ringstead, the nearest houses of which are only 600 metres away.  The position of the turbines, south west of the village, will mean that any noise pollution will have maximum impact on the village due to the prevailing south westerly winds.  The shadow/flicker effect of the turning blades will be a significant problem for almost all of Ringstead at certain times of the year.  The same effect could potentially have catastrophic consequences for users of the A 45, at the Raunds Roundabout in particular, where the sun will be setting behind the turbines.  This is already a dangerous junction and is at traffic flow capacity.

The proposed site is far too close to the well established and much cherished Kinewell Lake and its surrounding SSSI.  This is a haven of tranquility and is abundant in wildlife.  A walk round the lake can offer the chance to see among many other things, muntjac deer, red kites, kingfishers, possibly a badger or a fox, maybe even an otter by the river and at dusk in the summer, the patrolling bats.  Can anyone safely assume that monstrous rotating blades only a few hundred metres away will not ruin, beyond recovery, this wonderful facility?

What is certain is that our village and surrounding area would be changed for ever by the proposed wind turbines.  A peaceful rural landscape would disappear to be replaced by creeping industrialisation.

I  would like to make it clear that we, as a group representing our local community, are in favour of renewable energy.  The debate about the economic and social viability of wind farms is confusing and not at all conclusive.  There is a bigger picture and a macro scale that we, as a small rural community, cannot address.  What we can do is fight for our micro planet and try to save it from the cynical ravages of absentee profit chasers.  Saving the world we live in begins at home.

Shaun O’Shea