Renew On Line (UK) 46

Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 146 Nov-Dec 2003

7 Scots do like wind

The vast majority of people who live near wind farms in Scotland are happy with them, according to a comprehensive new opinion poll released by the Scottish Executive in Sept. Three times as many people say a wind farm has had a positive impact on their area as say it has had a negative impact. And the closer they live to the wind machines, the more positive they think their impact has been.

The Executive commissioned Mori in February to carry out a survey to replace an earlier one that was withdrawn after an anti-wind-power campaigner spotted that it used an incorrect grid reference which could have skewed the results.

The new poll, which interviewed more than four times as many people, shows overwhelming support for wind power. Four out of five people living within 20km of one of Scotland’s 10 wind farms said it had caused no problems. Although significant numbers of people had feared there would be problems before the wind farms were built, many of their concerns evaporated afterwards. The 27% worried that the landscape might be spoiled shrunk to 12% after construction, while fears of extra traffic, noise or damage to wildlife all but disappeared. Some 20% of those interviewed felt their local wind farm had had a generally positive impact. This compared with 7% who felt it had had a negative impact, 51% who had mixed views and 22% who expressed no opinion. Those living within 5km of a wind farm were the most enthusiastic, with 45% saying the impact had been positive and just 6% suggesting it had been negative. Those living 5-10km away were only slightly less keen, with 43% saying the impact had been positive. There was also support for expanding wind farms. Of all those interviewed who lived within 20km, 54% would back a 50% increase in the number of wind turbines. Only 9% would oppose such an expansion.

Sir Bernard Ingham, vice-president of the anti-wind Country Guardian, said the survey was ‘absolute bunkum’.       

Source:  Sunday Herald 24 /8.

Little opposition to offshore wind

A pro-wind article by Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee in August led to a flurry of letters covering all the usual angles- Country Guardian said it was hopeless, and Prof David Bellamy even seemed to oppose offshore wind.  But in response to a correspondent who claimed that the Porthcawl offshore windfarm project would ‘significantly damage tourism’,  Greenpeace came back with the results of an opinion survey they had conducted in the area, which found that of 650 visitors polled, 83% said that it would make no difference to them, while only 4% said the siting of the wind farm would make them less likely to return to Porthcawl and 13% said it would make them more likely to return.