Friday 19 August 2005

ACT miss the point regarding Fitzsimons'Windflow shares

The problem with Jeanette Fitzsimons' ownership of Windflow shares is not, as ACT have suggested, that there is anything improper about it but that her ownership of such shares has obviously blurred her judgment regarding the turbine's noise problems, according to Democrats for Social Credit health spokesman David Tranter.

When I wrote to Ms Fitzsimons last year raising neighbours' concerns about the noise from Windflow's experimental Banks Peninsula turbine she replied;

"Just as people who have had a limb amputated can still feel pain in it after years, the brain does play tricks on us and once you are sensitised to a noise, a smell, a taste you continue to hear/smell it when objective measurements don't record it".

Ms Fitzsimons made similar comments in the media and took the line that only one person had objected but when I wrote to her pointing out that other nearby residents were complaining plus that visitors including myself were aware of the turbine's considerable running noise she did not reply, Mr. Tranter said.

It is intriguing that Ms Fitzsimons has no sympathy for people objecting to wind turbine noise when she has been totally supportive of those objecting to having power pylons erected near their homes. Surely the many people seriously concerned at windfarm disruption of their lives deserve consideration for their point of view.

While the Democrats for Social Credit completely dissociate themselves from ACT's attempted slur campaign we are concerned that an M.P. with a very high profile on wind energy should make such a ridiculous comparison as to liken hearing turbine noise to feeling phantom pains after an amputation, Mr. Tranter said. Our view is that given the right location and that the economics are sound then windfarms do have a role to play, but pretending there aren't noise problems with turbines evades a crucial issue.

ENDS

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