CYCLISTS BEWARE!!

The so-called "objections" to the windfarm planning application continue to provide a combination of hilarity and outrage for the saner and more balanced members of the community.

One correspondent got in touch to ask if we'd seen the objection which made out that any cyclists going past the turbines could be adversely affected by the down-draught of the blades, a problem which was apparently mentioned repeatedly during coverage of this year's Tour de France.

Well, the first thing to hope is that the organisers of next year's Tour de France don't send the competitors off on a detour round the top of Bishampton Bank. Not that anyone has ever been seen cycling over those fields. Besides which, only a complete moron could get confused between the rotor blades of a helicopter (which produce a down-draught) and the blades of a wind turbine (which don't). So, in short, in the extremely unlikely event that someone will decide to cycle past the turbines they certainly won't be affected by a down-draught. End of.

One of the objections to the planning application was submitted by a pre-school or nursery group in the Lenches. This came as a surprise to the person who actually ran the pre-school until a few weeks ago. Finally, it comes to light that somebody involved with the group acted without authority and submitted an objection, off their own bat, on official headed paper, contrary to the interests of the children themselves. Oh dear. Naughty naughty.

Now, we at Wind of Change knew that this sort of thing was likely to happen - objections arriving in the names of individuals or groups who in fact had no intention whatsoever of objecting. Why? Because dishonesty and deviousness have been the hallmarks of the VVASP campaign to date. Whatever makes anyone think that they might finally start telling the truth at this late stage?

We've noticed that absolutely no parish councillor is allowed to express an opinion in public about the windfarm unless they happen to be approved of by Dr Stroud. If they're against the windfarm (even if they're not sure why, or even what a windfarm is, like the Norton and Lenchwick representative on the Windfarm Working Party), they're allowed an opinion. If they're in favour of the windfarm, then they're sharply criticised if they dare to express that opinion. That's what the Lenches now call 'democracy'.

The latest lie involves just how many letters of objection have been received. VVASP are now claiming something in the order of 700, and we at Wind Of Change are happy to offer a prize to the first person who can tell us where those 700-odd letters actually are (and a runner-up prize for anyone who guesses correctly how many of those letters were written by Big Chief Nimby himself).

Our friends over at BLoW are already working away at this one, apparently. The 700 letters claim (as misleading as every other claim made by VVASP) appeared in a full-page newspaper ad taken out by the nimby nutters. They're crowing about a couple of reports commissioned by Wychavon which, to the untrained eye, look like damning indictments of the windfarm planning application.

BLoW have already issued a press release, but we've decided to watch this space because the district council have evidently commissioned a rather unsatisfactory report. Unsatisfactory on the grounds of science and impartiality, that is. And that's going to take some explaining.

So - whatever next? We can but wait and see, and try to avoid cycling in places which are inappropriate for cyclists, lest we get blown off our saddles by something we don't quite understand.