JOBS FOR THE BOYS

In these times of austerity, wouldn't you just love to give £700 to your next-door neighbour? And wouldn't it be even lovelier if the money you gave to your next-door neighbour wasn't even yours in the first place but was actually public money, paid to parish councils to look after footpaths and doggy-doo bins?

Well, if you happened to be a leading member of the bogus Windfarm Working Party, you could do just that - give nigh on seven hundred quid to your neighbour to pursue some mindless anti-windfarm activity. And it wouldn't cost you a penny. The people of the area unknowingly stumped up that cash which you so thoughtfully handed over to the bloke next door.

If that seems unreasonably chummy (and, of course, anti-social, given that funding for local use was diverted into your foolish political campaigning), what about the fact that the member of the Windfarm Working Party charged with misleading Wychavon District Council officers over the government's guidelines on noise used to be a District Councillor himself?

Convenient, no? You want to trick the Council into misinterpreting the government guidelines, so you recruit a former Councillor to carry out the task. Forget about all those local residents who support, or at least don't actively oppose, the windfarm. Ex-councillors can be deployed to use their influence in local politics to ensure that undemocratic decisions get made ... and nobody can do anything about it!!!

This kind of behaviour is typical of VVASP. The chair of that discredited protest group used to be chair of Church Lench Parish Council. Apparently, he thinks he still is. Or would be, if it weren't for the fact that his campaign of misinformation and social terrorism might seem incompatible with chairing the local parish council. So a puppet parish council is installed (guaranteed to do your bidding) while you seek to mislead local government (via former councillors) and to divert public funds into your disingenuous and selfish cause. And, best of all, THEY CAN'T TOUCH YOU FOR IT!

Well, in less than a month we'll know what the Development Control Committee's decision vis-a-vis the windfarm planning application will be.

If the councillors do their jobs properly - i.e., if they examine the (genuine) evidence and make up their minds on the quality of the representations, rather than the quantity of meaningless objections - then it should be fairly straightforward. The lack of reasonable grounds for objection should mean that the planning application is approved.

But then, VVASP and its brownshirts have devoted the past two years to telling lies and spreading false information. The District Council has been as much a victim of their devious propaganda campaign as anybody. So ... who knows? Either common sense and reality will prevail, or a dangerous mob of unscrupulous fanatics will carry the day.

What you can't deny, though, is that the protest group has been very efficient when it comes to trampling all over local democracy. And that includes backhanders for neighbours, the manipulation of the process by former public servants, the bullying of windfarm supporters and the misrepresentation of local opinion.

And this, apparently, is how the coalition government wants local decisions to be taken in future. So we can all look forward to yet more corrupt practices and irresponsible protests over necessary and beneficial measures.

Happy 2011, one and all!