It’s very heartening to see so many people here today.
The first time I ever attended a protest march was at this rally last year, and now here I am addressing you all- promotion indeed! I had a quiet teenage life, I was not a wild child – no ban the bomb or peace on earth marches for me. I’ve been a pacifist until now!!
But this is a march and a protest with a difference. This is a protest by people who love their country and countryside and the grey haired brigade (although perhaps disguised with Grecian 2000!), it is a protest by families, by people who are established and settled in their way of life, not testosterone fuelled activists wanting to change the world and board oil rigs in the Artic.
We’re not fighting to change the world, or even save the world; we’re fighting for our homes and our way of lives.
We’re fighting against our exploitation by Windfarm companies that are hell bent , not on saving the planet or farming the wind, but on farming the lucrative subsidies paid for by every man and woman in this country.
But we are the little people – not because everyone is my size! – but because Our Government, our ELECTED representatives , as well as Commercial wind farm Developers think that they can tread us underfoot.
Well the tide is slowly turning and we are growing in stature, but only because of people like you, who do have a voice and can be bothered to show Mr Salmond and his Government what this rural industrialisation of one of the most spectacular countries in Europe is doing to its landscape, it’s wildlife and it’s peoples.
Every man’s home is his castle, but for most of us it’s not a castle, but a cottage or house we call home.
It’s the biggest investment we ever make; our nest egg; our life savings.
But it’s more than that, our homes in the country have treasured memories of rural tranquillity, open outlooks and community life. Wind turbines next to your home WILL devalue your home.
So, if a thief stole thousands of pounds from your savings in the bank, would it be tolerated? Of course not!
If a bank stole our money by investing unwisely and going bust, would the government tolerate it? Of course not, they would bail out the bank! That’s why we’ve been in an economic mess for the last five years.
But here we have a situation where house owners next to windfarms lose a quarter or more of the value of our homes, simply because our elected government has encouraged that development at our expense, without proper regulation.
We receive no compensation , no free electricity and our homes may become millstones we can’t sell.
We are the ‘collateral damage’ of this government’s fixation on Renewable Energy regardless of the cost.
So why is this Government so fixated on Renewable Energy?
After all, Scotland will have a miniscule contribution to reducing the world’s CO2 emissions. The Government is probably the largest land owner in Scotland with the Scottish Forestry Commission and Scottish water alone owning almost 700,000 Hectares.
In 2010 Alex Salmond introduced a bill to give Scottish Water statutory authority to partner with other firms to build a wide range of renewable energy projects, such as wind farms, on its 80,000 Hectares. This is expected to generate over £300 million a year and Scottish Water hope to increase the amount of renewable energy generated on its land by fifteen fold by 2020 – in seven years’ time.
And that doesn’t include the millions of pounds also being reaped by The Scottish Forestry’s 600,000 Hectares which contain some of the largest windfarms in Scotland.
So, this would be a good reason why Mr Salmond could be fixated on getting as many of those 25 year, water tight contracts for billions of pounds of subsidy revenue as is possible on our, Publicly owned land – with that lucrative green turbine rent paid for by every electricity consumer in this country.
No wonder windfarms on Government land are attractive; no wonder so many windfarm schemes, opposed by Local residents and turned down by Local authorities are approved by Central Government.
No wonder so many, huge, greater than 50 MW schemes, such as Whitelee are granted directly by central government.
No wonder this SNP government are now trying to get round Lady Clark’s ruling that so many windfarm consents could be unlawful.
The Scottish Government must be one of the biggest landowners to directly benefit from windpower
So where is this money going? Isn’t it time the British Public knew how much the Government is earning from wind?
Isn’t this the biggest conflict of interest in the Planning process that the UK has ever seen?
And what about the effect on us, the hapless rural peasants living next to these industrial cash cows being farmed by Foreign Multinationals on our once green and pleasant land?
Well, this is where I live ( T shirt). Right in the shadow of Whitelee, the largest on shore windfarm in Europe. What effect has this had on our lives?
This house ( T shirt) has been devalued by £150,000. Last year one of the Scottish Power managers saw this T shirt and said “ I know Whitelee, it doesn’t look that that” Well here’s the camera that took this picture. That man doesn’t live next to Whitelee; we do.
Well, the 215 turbines of the largest onshore windfarm in Europe produce an intrusive pulsating and rumbling noise, have overwhelming visual impact and flicker for my neighbours and have devalued our properties by up to 30%.
But now we have water problems.
Water – the reason there is life on earth!
Most people get their water from Scottish Water and the Public supply and think no more of it – apart from their water bills.
But by Scottish Government calculations, over 75,000 people in Scotland rely on Private water supplies.
It wouldn’t surprise you to know that industrialising vast tracts of previously unspoilt land has an effect on the water that collects in our reservoirs and private supplies.
What will surprise you is that although the developer must not contaminate your water as a result of the windfarm, The developer is usually responsible for monitoring whether they are actually contaminating the water. There has been no independent ‘watchdog’, and SEPA, I’m told, have no jurisdiction over private water supplies.
This is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house !!
So for seven years at Whitelee, Scottish Power has been diligently measuring bacteria in our water supply …not those mineral contaminants that you might expect to be related to the use of heavy machinery ; the excavation of millions of tons of peat and the dumping of thousands of tons of concrete into our water collection area.
No, they just measured levels of bacteria and solids.
And when our water was grossly contaminated with harmful bacteria to the level where it might even have been a urinary tract infection, did they tell anyone? Did they tell any statutory body that here was a real Public Health risk?
No.
They told us the water was fine and even told a journalist that our water met the statutory tests.
So have Scottish Power caused contamination of our water- well of course they deny that, but then they don’t even know where our water comes from – except that there are undoubtedly turbines with 40 foot foundations where there used to be trees and moorland.
So how do we know this is not going on all across Scotland?
How many other people are on Private water supplies unknowingly drinking contaminated water?
Aberdeenshire has the highest concentrations of PWS in Scotland and guess what, one of the highest densities of wind turbines.
What about Public water? Well, in relation to Whitelee, Scottish Power have told a journalist that “We have never been conditioned to sample public water supplies”.
Doesn’t that fill you with horror – that a developer can industrialise land that belongs to a Public Body and has no knowledge or responsibility to know what they’re doing to our water?
What we do know is that during the construction of Whitelee there were unprecedented levels of iron and manganese and solid matter within the adjacent Public reservoir owned by Scottish Water.
You would think then that Scottish Water would complain about the adjacent construction activity, especially as they were fined £10,000 by SEPA for related discharges from the local water treatment works into local streams.
But Scottish Water didn’t complain , at least not publically – but remember , at the encouragement of our Government, they are now the landlords of several turbines now situated on their land at Whitelee.
They are in receipt of millions of pounds from the developers not just at Whitelee, but all over Scotland.
So my friends, where does this leave us in our noisy, devalued rural idyll ?
We have a Government who is fixated on Renewable Energy and perhaps not just for the altruism of reducing global CO2 by a miniscule amount, but perhaps because , as one of the biggest landlords in Scotland, they will have a guaranteed income of billions of pounds from Renewable Energy for 25 years, paid for , out of our pockets.
We have a Government, who have a complete conflict of interest and flagrant disregard for due process and justice, in that the same body charged with consenting these massive developments, against the wishes of local people and authorities, is the same one that stands to gain massive direct financial benefit.
We have a Government who on the one hand wants every person in Scotland to have a clean safe supply of drinking water, but who on the other hand , with a Legislative Act, encourage the very Public Authority tasked with doing this to industrialise our water catchment areas.
And lastly, our Government has derogated responsibility for the monitoring of any water pollution and other environmental effects related to windfarm construction , to be tasked to the very developers who stand to gain most by exploiting the rural communities and countryside of Scotland.
I think it’s time all the facts surrounding this Governments relentless drive for so called green energy at any cost is laid bare for Public scrutiny.
I think we should be afraid, very afraid. We are only just beginning to see and understand what some of the long term consequences of this industrialisation will have on our once beautiful country and its fragile sea scape.
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