FacebookPress release 18/11/08
Sustainable Shetland
Sustainable Shetland launches petition
Campaign group Sustainable Shetland will today launch a petition opposing
Viking Energy’s giant wind farm in central Shetland.
The launch will take place outside Lerwick town hall at 3:15 pm, Tuesday 18 November, and feature dramatic posters showing the scale of the proposed turbines.
The petition calls on Shetland councillors to listen to what the Shetland community is saying, and oppose the wind farm scheme.
Speaking on behalf of Sustainable Shetland, Vice Chairperson Kevin Learmonth said the petition was a first step in “showing the Shetland community’s opposition to this project”.
The petition is addressed to Shetland councillors and reads:
SAY "NO!" TO VIKING ENERGY
- We the undersigned oppose plans for the Viking Energy wind farm development.
- We support renewable energy projects in Shetland, which are fit for scale and fit for purpose.
- We call upon local councillors not to support any large-scale wind farm planning application.
Mr Learmonth continued:
“Using Shetland money, Viking Energy has been lobbying Scottish and UK governments to back their project, presenting the project as community controlled and supported. This simply isn’t true, in fact the community is denied access to the very partnership agreement signed in their name.”
“Far from being an ‘investigation’ as initially claimed, recent Viking Energy statements make it very clear that the project will pay scant regard to local opinion and will press for full planning consent come what may”.
“Viking Energy chair Cllr Bill Manson promised that if the Shetland people did not want the Viking Energy development then it would not go ahead, these claims are odds with their determination to push for planning consent. This petition will give the Shetland population a well deserved voice in opposing the Viking development.”
In the past Sustainable Shetland has described the Viking Energy project as “financially risky and environmentally damaging”
The group, formed in February of this year, has been a fierce critic
of plans of Viking Energy’s plans to build a 154 turbine wind farm in the
central mainland of Shetland. To date the group has held three large meetings
attracting over 80 people to each meeting, and now has in excess of 380 members
throughout Shetland, a figure which is growing steadily.
Petitions will be available in local shops and through a Shetland wide network
of petition co-ordinators – details from Joy Tait 01595 809789 or online
at www.sustainableshetland.org
Press release ends
For more information contact:Kevin Learmonth
Sustainable Shetland
Tel. 01595 880503
www.sustainableshetland.org
This site...
This site...
Sustainable Shetland is a campaign group formed in March 2008 in response to a proposal for a large scale wind farm in Shetland. We believe these large industrial projects are damaging to our environment. We believe that the Viking Energy wind farm endangers Shetland Community Funds, project costs are underestimated and project income grossly over stated.
We believe that the Viking Energy proposals are everything we do not need in Shetland: they are financially risky and potentially damaging to the Shetland environment.
We want to see sustainable renewable energy projects in Shetland which are fit for scale and fit for purpose, and provide real community benefit.
We are not an "anti windfarm" campaign. However we are strongly opposed to the Viking wind farm proposal. Other projects will be considered on their own merits.
