Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[Skunnered]

Good result at Aith!

110 against, only 15 for!

 

am i stating the obvious here or not ?

 

With a very contravertial thing like this is it no usual for the folk who are against things to fill the halls ?

What, to the exclusion of those who are in favour of it? I would have thought that if there are hoards of people out there who are pro-windfarm, that given the recent publicity about the propaganda from the ante-lot, that the "fors" would have made an extra effort to attend these meetings to prove that they do indeed exist! Surely, if there really are lots of people in favour but staying quiet, now is the time for them to stick their heads above the parapets make themselves heard.

[moorit]

In the Shetland Times survey a majority of folk were not against the wind farm. A show of hands at these 2 hall meetings shows a huge majority against the windfarms.

folk didn't have to get off their backsides to reply to the Shetland Times survey.

People against things will go to the bother to attend meetings more than those for thiings.

maybe when the pro windfarm folk see what is happening in the last two hall meetings they will be more inclined to let their views known.

Lets see what happens now at the meetings in Lerwick and Dunrossness.

[Skunnered]

You want to know what they intend to do with the million cube of peat? They'll dump it in a hole somewhere. It's only a 100mx100mx100m. It should fit neatly into all those quarries they'll need for hardcore. Seriously though, it's not a big thing, they moved ten times as much when building Sullom, and all that peat is sitting there in Orca Voe, right where it was dumped thirty years ago. It hasn't magically evaporated away into CO2, despite what "sustainable" Shetland may have led you to believe, and neither has the remaining peat on Calback Ness suffered major deterioration.

A while ago VE released a report that said that the break-even point for carbon emissions for this project could be 3 years or 14 years. Now I don't know if that has been revised since then, but if their estimate is as wide as that, then it seems clear that they really don't know, and I believe the uncertainty lies in the calculation about the quantity of peat to be removed, and the uncertaintly about its subsequent decay and emission of CO2.

 

Surely if there is a risk that it could be as long as 14 years (or even say 7 years) then it simply shouldn't be built on peat. Basically, this would mean that they would be releasing up to (possibly) 14 years worth of CO2 into the atmosphere during the initial construction stage, and that would be extremely damaging to the environment at this particular time, especially as we are now told that we have a much shorter time span than previously thought to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere if we are to avoid a worse situation in the future.

 

Therefore, surely we should not be doing anything that causes an initial increase in the release of CO2.

[Carlos]

I imagine that there are relatively few people that come into the Shetland times "for" group that would consider themselves active supporters of the VE project and a lot more that would say it's not what they would prefer to see happening in an ideal world, but on balance for them the positives probably outweigh the negatives.

[Caeser]

 

Also, the Councillors claim that if the Charitable Trust don't invest in this/the Councillors oppose the development, another investor WILL come in, build the wind farm and reap the (questionable) rewards. How can that be? do the SIC or Charitable Trust not own the Busta Estate? if so they could surely refuse to sell their land to other potential developers? this would surely render the development unviable.

 

I think you will find plenty of crofters out there willing to give up some blades of grass for 30k per turbine per year.

[Skunnered]

There are probably a lot of people who are against the windfarm project as it stands, or given the information currently to hand, but who are not against windmills or windfarms in total. If VE could answer all of the outstanding questions regarding sources and cost of financing the project, CO2 emissions, and probably other issues that people may be concerned about, then they might find that some of those voting against, and some of the don't knows, come round to thinking about it more favourably.

[Kevin]

Yeah, but it's not usually the crofter's that own the land, or there won't be much of the land owned by actual crofters. Crofters are usually tenants. I'll need to do a bit of research into the rights of crofters when it comes to Common Grazings and Apportionments I tink

 

I'd be interested to find a map with the different land owners areas marked.

Anderton of Burrastow will be the landlord of a large part of the hill above Aith, Weisdale and East Burrafirth, the Busta estate must start from not far north of East Burrafirth but I'm not sure how far north and east it goes? ie does it extend into Nesting, Graven, Collafirth etc?

[Caeser]

Yeah, but it's not usually the crofter's that own the land, or there won't be much of the land owned by actual crofters. Crofters are usually tenants. I'll need to do a bit of research into the rights of crofters when it comes to Common Grazings and Apportionments I tink

 

I'd be interested to find a map with the different land owners areas marked.

Anderton of Burrastow will be the landlord of a large part of the hill above Aith, Weisdale and East Burrafirth, the Busta estate must start from not far north of East Burrafirth but I'm not sure how far north and east it goes? ie does it extend into Nesting, Graven, Collafirth etc?

 

The crofter gets 50% of the income with the landord getting the other half.

[paulb]

that will be a good earner for a few. any councillors tenants or owners of the sites.

[OriginalUsername]

does anyone really think that a few hundred in the halls is going to stop this going ahead. the only way is if you convince them that it will cost to much.

 

were only 22000 against the wishes of scotland or the uk. we have no chance.

 

Not everyone in Shetland is against this project - so it's even less than 22,000.

[unlinkedstudent]

does anyone really think that a few hundred in the halls is going to stop this going ahead. the only way is if you convince them that it will cost to much.

 

were only 22000 against the wishes of scotland or the uk. we have no chance.

 

Not everyone in Shetland is against this project - so it's even less than 22,000.

 

mmm, have we got enough Police to stop say at least 5,000 demonstrators then?

[Rasmie]

I don't think that they could over-rule a majority against without suffering serious political consequences. Unless gordon broon sends a gun-boat!

 

Anyway the goods news is that the impending windfarm will push up house prices in the South mainland.

 

so maybe i'm for it??

[OriginalUsername]

does anyone really think that a few hundred in the halls is going to stop this going ahead. the only way is if you convince them that it will cost to much.

 

were only 22000 against the wishes of scotland or the uk. we have no chance.

 

Not everyone in Shetland is against this project - so it's even less than 22,000.

 

mmm, have we got enough Police to stop say at least 5,000 demonstrators then?

 

Considering it was only 3,447 (not 5,000) people who took the time to sign their names to a petition (some of whom are not resident in Shetland currently) and probably less than that who took time out to send a letter of objection to the ECU, then it seems quite unlikely to me that we're suddenly going to find ("at least"!!) 5,000 Shetlanders protesting in the street!

[Kevin]

I think you will find plenty of crofters out there willing to give up some blades of grass for 30k per turbine per year.

 

Possibly true but not the Aithsting Crofters, see this link

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/04/18/revised-plans-for-windfarm-fail-to-impress-aithsting-crofters/

 

The crofter gets 50% of the income with the landord getting the other half.

 

That's true, but the point I was trying to make was that the landlord has the 'final say' on whether the land is sold or leased to VE. The Tresta Estate refused permission and so VE had to alter their plans, if the Busta Estate also refuse permission it would surely make the development even more dubious than it already is.

 

If the majority of Shetlanders are against this the Councillors should stop the project and refuse to allow any other developers to build on the Busta Estate rendering the the project unviable for other developers in the future.

[paulb]

I don't think that they could over-rule a majority against without suffering serious political consequences. Unless gordon broon sends a gun-boat!

 

Anyway the goods news is that the impending windfarm will push up house prices in the South mainland.

 

so maybe i'm for it??

 

why not. think how many they would get if they planned this near a town down south. being a liberal voting area makes us a prime dumping ground for any nasty industry. with a big interconnector why not a couple of nuclear power stations. our rocks are old maybe they are prime for the long searched dump. these turbines will change Shetland whether for good or ill but we can't hide from the future. were miles away from those that make the decisions so it would be easy to impose anything they wanted on us.