Words: 870
With reference to a conflict over use of a local resource that you have studied, discuss the extent to which all interest groups involved can be satisfied with its outcome. The local conflict that I have studied is that over the mix of opinions regarding the Carination Pastures wind turbines. In this case only people with negative views vocalizes their opinion, take to court and protest. This makes its difficult to find opponent groups who are positive towards the turbines as they will not vocalizes so long as they are built.
General pro wind turbine groups can be mound just not small local organizations. In total there are four turbines, all the same height at mom above ground level they can be made to look higher due to the pastures high elevation. They have an 8. 2 mega watt capacity- enough to power 4400 homes. This photo illustrates the size of the turbines from the reservoir. The so map below shows the distance (km) from Carination Pastures to the peak park boundary, the main opposition to the build. A major factor in the success of the Carination Pastures wind turbines has to be the government’s positive influence.
By 2020 the EX. want 20% of its energy from renewable sources and so the I-J government has to push for contributions. Reasons for include reducing greenhouse emissions, being less reliant on imported energy, pushing technological advances and creating jobs. The site is situated in the East Midlands region of the country which is known as being behind most other regions in terms Of renewable this means that the local government, Derbyshire County Council will have been under even more pressure to accept. Severe Trend, owner of the Carination
Reservoir have stated that they have no obligations against the wind farm despite it being in plain view from their tourist attraction, the reservoir. Their spokesperson stated when talking to local newspaper Seaborne News Telegraph “As a company, we strongly support sustainable energy sources and are even assessing heat exchange and solar power methods at Carination Water. Naturally the company wanting to carry out the building of the turbines, West Coast Energy, were positive towards there creation but potentially more so than other contracts.
The company has projects spaced out all over the UK but it appears that the East Midlands, without Carination would have no projects for the company, a large void in their dominance. The main organization against the building of the turbines was the peak District National Park. As the map on page one shows the Peak park in some places is as close as km away, this means that it is visible for those in the park, devaluing its ‘natural beauty.
In 2009 the Peak Park took Carination Wind Energy Ltd (this is effectively West Coast Energy but given a different name so not to bring the entire company into any obligations) to the high court stating that alternative sites that do no effect the park have not been considered. The judge stated that he had given the clean energy aspects “a lot of weight” and could see no problems with the construction to go ahead.
In this case a lot of the groups in the news around the scenario are/were against the construction examples include the local bird club, peak park, Amber-valley Riders (horse riders), Archeologist and the Ramblers Association. This creates a very typical conflict concerning one big company ‘superpower’ attempting (in this case succeeding) to overpower lots of small apposes. Generally most of the general public will be positive about the wind turbines as most will not be able to hear or see them leaving only the positive aspects of clean energy.
Some of the public may have been involved in the making of the turbines due to local companies bidding for the job worth over 1. 5 million pounds and lasting around 6 months. Local quarries were used for the aggregates, most probably Longfellow injecting more money into the local economy. The opposes of these people are that of the local protest groups, one of these is the Amber Valley Rider horse riding club who presented theirs concerns for their horses with the road, in which they walk their horses being close to the turbines.
Their view is that the horses may get spooked by the noise and swooping blades, they also may disagree with how the turbines look aesthetically against the back drop of the Peak District. Now that the construction is complete and the turbines are running I feel the horse riders would not have to much of problem because, from experience they are not noisy at all and that the horse would have to lift its head along way in order to notice the rotating blades.
Similar to the horse riders are the Rambler Association who, in keeping with the Peak Park disagree with the construction of the turbines. This is likely based ardor peak parks view points that were taken to court, there to close to the peak district and that they are big and UN keeping with the landscape.