PRESS RELEASE 10th September 2008

RESPONSE TO ASA RULING

FLAT has recently received a ruling from the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) brought about by a complaint from Marshland Windfarm Ltd in relation to a year old leaflet.  In the spirit of openness that FLAT always adheres to we will be making all the correspondence relating to this claim available via our website.  We would encourage people to read the full facts (not the “edited highlights”) and come to their own conclusions.  It has always been our policy to encourage people to undertake their own investigations and make up their own minds based on the facts available to them.  Many dozens (if not hundreds) of local people have now had the opportunity to question the developers face to face at consultation events held earlier this year and many of the comments made to us about the trustworthiness and truthfulness of those involved in the proposed development are unprintable!!!

While the ruling does criticise some of our comments as presenting the most extreme circumstances, we are very pleased that the ASA ruling does uphold our view that house prices could be affected by wind farms by stating “we noted the proximity of a wind farm might influence property prices”.  Marshland Windfarm Ltd also states that there is no agreement to pay the landowners between 8 and 15 thousand pounds per year per turbine for 25 years.  Perhaps they would like to now come clean and tell us the actual figures that have been agreed!  As regards the ruling on efficiency of turbines, whilst we concede that efficiency is not the most appropriate term to use, people can draw their own conclusions about the usefulness of these blots on the landscape  by observing any existing wind farms and noting how many times the blades are stationary (even when the wind is blowing!!).

We do not intend to enter a tit-for-tat slanging match over a year old leaflet so we feel that no more needs to be said by us about the ASA ruling (as already stated the entire correspondence with the ASA will be available on our website).  However we would just like to point out that Marshland Windfarm Ltd continue to attempt to mislead people by omission. Whilst a planning application is no doubt currently being prepared for submission to BERR (formally the DTI), what they are omitting to tell you is that the application will also go before the local Borough Council and if it is rejected there will have to be a public enquiry.  Obviously Marshland Windfarm Ltd are hoping that people will think that if it is going directly to Government the outcome is a foregone conclusion and there is no point in objecting.  However this is not the case and many public enquiries, triggered by a rejection from the local Borough Council, have ruled in favour of the local protestors.  Mr Pittingale clearly hopes that any objection will now go away!   However, once a planning application is submitted to the Borough Council this may be “wishful thinking” on his part.  We will see if the selective spin that they have put on the ASA ruling will in any way affect the numbers of letters of objection received by the planners once an application is finally submitted.

FLAT can be contacted via our website ie www.flat-group.co.uk.

The FLAT Committee

• Letter from FLAT to ASA
• Letter from ASA to FLAT
• Final Adjudication