PRESS RELEASE 31st JULY 2007

The Marshland St James Parish Council got more than they bargained for when they held an extra ordinary general meeting to appoint a new chairman on the 27th of July.  About 100 villagers turned up with one thing on their mind and that was to discuss the proposed wind turbine factory development within the parish.  However, the Parish Council again used procedures to ensure that the subject was not on the agenda and could not therefore be discussed during the meeting.  The new Chairman, Mr Jack Bantoft (who had previously been the Borough Councillor for 18 years until defeated by Independent David Markinson at the last election) closed the meeting in an attempt to both silence the Borough Councillor (who was speaking at the time) and anyone else that wanted to discuss the issue.

The Chairman then tried to conduct an un-minuted and unofficial discussion about the issue during which he refused the democratic right of the parish to request a public meeting to discuss the wind turbine factory proposal and also a Parish Poll about the same subject.  The Chairman was also asked why he had not put the proposal on the agenda because this had been requested three meetings ago by a member of the Parish Council ie Councillor Steve Woolner.  Mr Bantoft was reminded that he could not ignore such a request if it came from a Parish Councillor.  The audience did not receive a satisfactory answer to this.  However FLAT have written to the Parish Council to ask for an explanation of this and other issues.  Copies of these letters can be viewed on FLAT’s website ie www.flat-group.co.uk. 

The fact that Councillor Bantoft made such a blatant attempt to quash any democratic debate at the meeting incensed the audience and led to a number of very angry comments from the floor including accusations of the Parish Council lying to Parishioners, questions like “what are you frightened off Mr Bantoft”, calls for them to resign and statements like “no-one has any faith in this current Parish Council anymore”.  At the end of the meeting the Chairman of FLAT said that one of the questions that they would like to be asked in the Parish Poll was “are you satisfied with your current Parish Council”.  The verbal question received a resounding and loud chorus of NO NO from the assembled Parishioners.

The Chairman of FLAT said, “The Parish Council seem to have forgotten that they are elected by the Parishioners to serve the Parishioners.  There seems to be a feeling amongst the Parish Council that the wind turbine issue is not important and is being driven by a few incoming NIMBY’s and people outside the Parish.  I would have thought that the  defeat of Mr Bantoft in the Borough Council elections, the turnout at the two public meetings that FLAT have held and the turnout for the Parish Council meeting on Friday should have made it obvious to them that it is the biggest issue to face our community for many years.  I would ask that Councillor Bantoft does not make the same mistake as he made in the Borough elections and that he and the other Parish Councillors now start to take our concerns seriously and face up to their duty as the elected representatives of this community.  The Parish Council could start to rectify past mistakes by calling a public Parish meeting and giving everyone the opportunity to have a frank and open discussion with the Parish Council about this issue”

The FLAT Committee