Wind power. Say those two words in a hilly area and you can almost guarantee that local residents break out in a cold sweat and start a campaign.

But is that such a bad thing really?

I don't think so, but then again I'm staunchly against wind power. Funny I know considering the title of the blog, but I REALLY have a problem with wind power.

So you can only imagine my glee when E.ON, the illustrious German owners of Powergen, submitted plans to build a wind farm on Denshaw Moor near Oldham (Greater Manchester) of 7 windmills up to 350ft each!!!

There was a public uproar, local residents, environmentalists (including Dr David Bellamy) and media lambasting the plans with real passion. So what did the company do to try and win the local population over?

Missed the point
A statement was issued by them saying that a survey concluded that windfarms did not direcly affect house prices.
So what? The main point of protest was the blot on the landscape that seven 360ft concrete towers would cause, the irreperable damage to the landscape and wholesale slaughter of wildlife it would cause.

Saddleworth is one of the only places left in the Greater Manchester conurbation that you can escape from inner city life and take in some stunning scenery. Concrete and windmills would be seen from so far around that not only would it ruin the hills either side, but for miles around. We all need that escape in this modern world and having it taken away is too much!!!

The moors above Saddleworth already have National Grid power lines bisecting it, several communication masts and the M62. That is no excuse or business case for adding to it. Know when it is full and accept defeat.

Fixed an opinion poll

This was a masterstroke!!!!

The Oldham Advertiser (newspaper) set up an online opinion poll to gauge what local people felt about the proposals.

They noticed 104 votes for the scheme come in within quick succession of each other, which they thought was strange, so they looked at the i.p. details of the votes and traced them straight to the offices of E.ON subsidary Powergen!!!

When quizzed a spokesperson said,

Members of the Renewables Team wanted to show their support for the project

OK, but just one thing. Powergen's offices are in Nottingham nearly 100 miles away from the planned site!!!! The "renewables" team couldn't even tell you where Denshaw is on a map!!!!

Not a good way to make friends in this kind of situation.

The Outcome

Oldham M.B.C. turned the proposals in February citing, very correctly that the site would be damaging to the landscape. It would also have been damaging to the council if it had allowed the plans to go ahead, but that's democracy!

Have E.ON taken it lying down?

NO! In fact they plan to appeal the decision and run to the government to overturn the decision!!

So, not only are E.ON underhand in trying to get their way, they think that the Council and majority of Oldham's residents are wrong so will try to force this on them.

The worst part of this is that E.ON is a retail company not just a generator, so relies on the business of the sort of people who they ended up fighting!

I know this because I'm one of their many customers. But how can I remain the customer of a company with such few ethics and breath taking arrogance?

Simple, I've just switched to one of their biggest competitors! I would strongly recommend the same to anyone else.