Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[Skunnered]

It's all a worry!

[Ghostrider]

Ah!....The Shetland Wind Farm Enviromental Advisory Group.

 

You'd think the WF was up and running!

Cart before the Horse again in this Fiasco.

 

And more Councillors appointed to positions that will cause more conflicts of interest, and another £115.000 per annum of public money in the proposed £230.000 per annum running costs

 

And why isn't the Amenity Trust on board??????

 

Jobs for the boys. Keep them busy, it stops them having time to dream up yet more fanciful and outlandish ways to pulling the chain on even larger sums of OUR money. *Sundry expletives*

[Para Handy]

Ah! yes. SWAG The Shetland Wind Advisory Group?

Truth well out of the bag. Quit a few of them are on the council too

[sheepshagger]

With the gas powered station at the SVT no need to import fuel oil to keep gremista going. a few extra turbines up there and black reek will be no more.

 

If HE or S&SE or whatever the hell they call themselves are pissed of losing the work why not have them run the power station at SVT, the money saved by getting rid of one power station without building a new one from scratch will more than pay for any redundancies, and valuable land on Lerwick water front will be freed up.

 

Enough back up gas could be stored at the terminal for any short term interuption in the supply from offshore and there are piers with the piping in place to import gas for long term shut downs.

 

Renwable enrgy is fine but the when you considder the palamis wave power test barge is showing great results as are several tidal generators, would it not be wise to see which way the wind is blowing (pardon the pun) before jumping in feet first. These systems certainly seem to be doing what their creators claim without the environmental impact of windfarms,

whether it is spoiling someones view or the more physical damaged done to the peat hill itself during the construction.

 

As for the argument of replacing the oil funds, as many supporters of the wind farm point out oil is running out so lets make the oil companies pay more for our oil. The excuse that they will pull out does not hold water the oil is out there the only practical way to get it is to pipe it to SVT a pipeline to the uk will cost hundreds of millions then ther is the cost of the infrastructure ashore. And our council is shaving jobs on the tugs to save money to keep the oil coming in here.

[PressedCurdsOfMilk]

I went to one of the Viking Energy public meetings in the Whiteness and Weisdale Hall 2 years ago.

I naively thought, given the scale of this development, that this must be the first of many public meetings that would engage the public in a rigorous process of consultation. 2 years later, back in the real world, apart from a couple of glossy brochures that (in my experience) thoroughly misrepresents public opinion, a mountain of baseless speculation and Weber Shandwick driven PR, most of you, like me, must be wondering how much more can be done to insult your intelligence... oh here we go again another brief series of not well publicised events that most people will not even get to see. I notice that it is mostly in the Easter holidays which might make it difficult for many people to attend. It is also based at very few venues and no long lasting central exhibition, like a semi-permanent display in the museum, is planned. I also notice the events section of the VE website has no mention of it.

 

I wonder what form it will actually take. I can only guess it will either be:

 

1. a well designed balanced show, demonstrating the enormity of this proposal and leave you in no doubt as to the real potential impact of this development... I somehow doubt it.

 

2. a carefully constructed PR exercise, giving you little time to consider what is really important, overstating the positives (potential financial benefits) and underplaying the negatives (environmental impact, visual impact, real cost and not forgetting that the “mass of reports backing the planning submission will not be published in time for the six public meetingsâ€).

 

Based on what we have seen of VEs methods so far, I am sure that this is yet another manipulation of the "consultation" process?

[nederlander]

^ Damned before it even begins. Can't win can they? Same as everything in Shetland, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[PressedCurdsOfMilk]

^ Damned before it even begins. Can't win can they? Same as everything in Shetland, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

It began several years ago and my opinion is based on previous experience. Why do you think they need a PR company?

[nederlander]

They need a PR company because, in my opinion, mistakes were made at the start of the project with regards to how the company interacted with the public. I think it's as simple as that, I don't think it's part of any dastardy plans to come in and rape Shetland and then disappear into the sunset.

[PJ of Hildisvik]

Who do think is paying for the PR company??

 

VE and public interaction?? LOL!!

[PressedCurdsOfMilk]

They need a PR company because, in my opinion, mistakes were made at the start of the project with regards to how the company interacted with the public. I think it's as simple as that, I don't think it's part of any dastardy plans to come in and rape Shetland and then disappear into the sunset.

 

 

Mistakes were made at the start I agree, but they continued to make mistakes. They didn't interact with the public for 2 years, they did not maintain their website which was one of the few placed people could have gone to for information and they have not been particularly forthcoming with direct requests for information (I know people, including myself, who have asked questions and made reasonable requests for information and that information has not been provided).

[nederlander]

Who do think is paying for the PR company??

 

VE and public interaction?? LOL!!

 

Not sure what who pays for the PR company has got do with my opinions on why they need one?

 

Yes, VE and public interaction. As I said, I think that various mistakes have been made in the past, hence the relative silence since.

 

Mistakes were made at the start I agree, but they continued to make mistakes. They didn't interact with the public for 2 years, they did not maintain their website which was one of the few placed people could have gone to for information and they have not been particularly forthcoming with direct requests for information (I know people, including myself, who have asked questions and made reasonable requests for information and that information has not been provided).

 

I wouldn't disagree with that either, although I do think that perhaps they didn't have a hell of a lot to say while the EIA was being carried out. Hopefully they'll be able to be much more forthright in their consultations at these meetings. Time will tell. Although I think it's a mistake for people to go along with the idea that they will turn out to go one of two ways, which both point to the negative. I for one will be going with an entirely open mind.

[PressedCurdsOfMilk]

I wouldn't disagree with that either, although I do think that perhaps they didn't have a hell of a lot to say while the EIA was being carried out. Hopefully they'll be able to be much more forthright in their consultations at these meetings. Time will tell. Although I think it's a mistake for people to go along with the idea that they will turn out to go one of two ways, which both point to the negative. I for one will be going with an entirely open mind.

 

 

I went to the first public meetings very much open minded. I was very disappointed by the level of information and the lack of public interaction both at the time and subsequently. The inadequate consultation process is complete, the forthcoming events are not about consulting the public, they are about telling you what VE plan to do. I suppose you could say that I am about as open minded as it is possible to be under the circumstances.

[nederlander]

^ I assume you mean under your own circumstances rather than the general circumstances surrounding the project?

[PressedCurdsOfMilk]

^ I assume you mean under your own circumstances rather than the general circumstances surrounding the project?

 

You seem to be making quite a lot of wrong assumptions regarding my views. It is indeed the circumstances surrounding the project, the alienation of many members of the public, the lack of information or the reluctance to provide information, the inadequate consultation process, the timing of events, the timing of availablility of information etc. It should actually be quite obvious.

[nederlander]

^ How should it be obvious given your previous disparaging posts? My point is that you are not approaching the forthcoming meetings with as open a mind "as it is possible to be under the circumstances" if the two outcomes you invisage are:

1. a well designed balanced show, demonstrating the enormity of this proposal and leave you in no doubt as to the real potential impact of this development... I somehow doubt it.

 

2. a carefully constructed PR exercise, giving you little time to consider what is really important, overstating the positives (potential financial benefits) and underplaying the negatives (environmental impact, visual impact, real cost and not forgetting that the “mass of reports backing the planning submission will not be published in time for the six public meetingsâ€).

 

Unless you are saying that everyone that is attending the meetings will go to them with the same preconcieved visions of how they will pan out? It would appear, taking into account the two points above, that you have already made up your mind.