The full version of this story is due to be published in the next couple of days.
The results of a YouGov poll which claimed that three quarters of Britons would back a local wind farm has been questioned by a campaign group.
Scotland Against Spin (SAS) has spoken out against the survey as they believe it does not reflect feelings in Scotland towards the building of more turbines.
There are more onshore turbines in Scotland than the rest of the countries in the UK put together but the YouGov poll only included 157 Scottish respondents out of the 1826 people surveyed.
This data meant that the poll was skewed to show that Brits want more wind farms despite local objections in Scotland.
Aileen Jackson from SAS told the Scottish Daily Express that they were not confident at all in the results due to this and were awaiting answers from YouGov about this.
She said: “It is notable that of the 1826 UK respondents (weighted results) there were only 157 Scottish respondents (0.0028% Scottish population) even though there are more onshore turbines in Scotland than the rest of the countries in the UK put together.
“There is no information as to where these respondents live in relation to any wind farm. Are respondents recruited from urban areas benefiting from electricity generated out of sight and are they ever likely to experience any adverse effect from either onshore windfarms or nuclear installations?
“The 157 total number of Scottish respondents compare with 219 respondents from London where there are no onshore wind farms and never likely to be and a further 614 respondents from the ‘south of England’, where there are very few onshore wind farms, all of them tiny in comparison with Scotland.
“It is easy to say you support wind farms in your neighbourhood if you know there is virtually no chance of you ever having one.”
A YouGov spokesman claimed that the survey was meant to be indicative of the UK as a whole and not just Scottish people.
He said: “In relation to the question of whether respondents live near wind farms, the survey is designed to be of the GB population as a whole on whether they would support or oppose the building of wind farms or a nuclear power plant in their local area. It is not a survey of the experiences of people who live near existing or proposed wind farms.
“As such, the sample used for this research is representative of the GB population as a whole and is recruited to reflect the GB adult population as closely as possible (for example, we know that the GB adult population is 51% female, 49% male, so the sample is quota’ed and weighted to be 51% female, 49% male).
“We apply similar quotas and weights on age, gender, level of education, past election vote, social grade, and region.
“The proportion of the GB adult population who live in Scotland is 8.6% and, as such, the proportion of respondents in the survey who live in Scotland is also 8.6%. The figures reported by YouGov related to GB adults overall and made no specific reference to data from Scottish respondents.” https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/…/campaign-group…
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