Anti-wind farm campaigners were caught red handed faking letters of objection to a wind farm the BBC revealed this week.
The local planning authority in central England discovered the fraudsters after writing to acknowledge the objections. According to Harborough Council, nearly 100 people responded saying they had not written the letters. Harborough Council are ‘reviewing their processes’ as a result of the revelations.
The Gartree Wind Farm comprises 3 turbines proposed on an airfield to the west of the town of Market Harborough. It was refused by local councillors last week. Community wind farm company Energy4All expressed its disappointment over the reasons for refusing the 3 wind turbines.
Energy4All’s John Malone said “We and our many supporters are obviously disappointed not to have won approval at the first attempt particularly as we felt objections were already addressed….We, together with the Council, also seem to have been the victim of a dirty tricks campaign. The Council has received many letters of objection to our proposals purporting to be from individuals, who when contacted by the Council were concerned to state that they had sent no such letter. We understand that the police are looking into this, and suggest it is symptomatic of a range of false allegations and the myths perpetrated by a small number of protesters.”
