KEEPING STUMM

Ever tried getting blood from a stone? If you have, the chances are you got further than those diehard souls of BLoW who are determined to find out what the so-called Windfarm Working Party has been up to.

The WWP was created by the nimbies and VVASP-members of Church Lench Parish Council (the new-look parish council, that is, established when the howling mob had prevented the real parish council from doing its job). The purpose - or so it was stated when Church Lench wanted money from the surrounding parish councils - was 'information gathering and sharing'.

Well, not very much information has been gathered in the eighteen months or so of the WWP's existence. And as for sharing? You must be having a laugh!

So far, after much persistence, BLoW members have succeeded in acquiring copies of WWP minutes from the summer of 2009. Back then, a few members of the WWP hadn't quite worked out what the point of the Windfarm Working Party was and were still suggesting that they meet up with groups like Friends of the Earth. But, led by the chair of Church Lench Parish Council (a nookie with VVASP placards all over his house), the WWP ignored that sort of suggestion. After all, who wants to know the truth about windfarms?

The notes do show that the WWP had a very odd notion of what education is. They decided that none of the parish councils should attempt to inform the public about windfarms - that should be left to VVASP. And what have VVASP done? Grossly misinformed the public about windfarms.

Otherwise, the WWP was only interested in finding excuses to oppose the proposed Lenchwick Windfarm. What steps they took to do this (other than keeping themselves in a state of blissful ignorance about wind power) are unclear. Basically, the WWP members and the parish councils are refusing to say.

No minutes taken after the summer of 2009 have been released. The WWP members keep saying that they are 'not subject to the Freedom of Information Act' - a statement which seems a little odd, given that the questions being put to them are entirely legitimate, concern the use of public money (parish council precepts) which was administered, not by the WWP, but by Church Lench Parish Council, and anyway - what right have these people to refuse to answer questions about their 'information gathering and sharing' activities?

It seems, however, that the WWP completely controls the parish councils. Parish Council clerks have been obstinately refusing to pass on information relating to the WWP and its use of our money. The big sticking point is - what brief was given to the solicitor who prepared a report for the parish councils on the Lenchwick Windfarm planning application?

No one will say. No: more than that - they get extremely defensive when asked, pointedly refusing to answer the question. Nobody, it seems, is prepared or allowed to discuss what the parish councillors of the WWP have been up to.

It's pretty clear that they haven't been finding out about windfarms (other than looking for ways to stop them). It's also pretty obvious that the WWP was so biased, so prejudiced, that it instructed the solicitor to find any fault at all, whether or not one existed, with the planning application. This report was then submitted to the district council, at the insistence of the WWP reps, by the parish councils concerned.

However, the WWP members (and their nimby sponsors) know that to reveal the substance of the brief given to the solicitor would give the game away. It would show that the WWP had no intention at all of getting to the truth about windfarms and that the parish councils were tricked into approaching the matter from the same narrow-minded, petty and foolish point-of-view of the Church Lench nimby mob.

Or, put it another way - it would demonstrate, beyond all possible doubt, that the parish councils failed in their obligations and took a biased and misinformed attitude towards the planning application. This started long before the planning application was submitted, by which time the WWP had brainwashed its members, coerced the parish councils into following its lead, and got a solicitor on standby to do its shabby bidding.

And all of that was paid for out of our money. Your taxes. Funding meant for the upkeep of our parishes.

Frankly, they don't have a leg to stand on. All their cowardly attempts to hide behind the 'we don't have to tell you' defence will avail them nothing. They have been caught out playing a stupid and grossly undemocratic game.

They think they got away with it. But BLoW's happy campaigners for truth and justice show no signs of giving up just yet.