Have election candidates’ concerns been raised by the highly vocal minority who want to stop Viking Energy and our link to the National Grid?
The Shetland Times poll showed that, at best, there is one third of the population opposed. Therefore, there are another two-thirds who also have votes. Candidates would do well to reflect on this.
Andrina Tulloch
Salamander,
Quarff.
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Mike Bennett
Andrina Tulloch quotes The Shetland Times poll in asserting that one third of the population of Shetland is opposed to the VE wind farm.
My recollection of the poll is that it did little more than to demonstrate that those unaffected by the wind farm were more in favour than those directly affected by it. No real surprise there !
I guess that the real test of opinion came from those who cared enough to contact the Energy Consents Unit. This being the case, then the 71.5% who raised objections far outweigh the 28.5% in support of VE. We can argue all day over hypothetical figures and certainly we seem to be getting more than our fair share from all quarters. However, if the responses to the Energy Consents Unit is in any way representative then clearly this gives much food for thought.
Mike Bennett
(Sandsound)
Gordon Harmer
Did those unaffected by the wind farm submit their post code to the poll, or is this just more rhetoric. No surprise there then.
Mike Bennett
Gordon Harmer will, of course, realise that the key to successful polling is probability sampling, the fundamental principal of which is equal probability selection. To this end, I have no doubt that the Shetland Times will confirm that one of the factors taken into account when setting up their poll was geographical.
In publishing the results the paper offered a geographical breakdown. I believe that if Gordon takes the trouble to check the Shetland Times December 10th. 2010, he will discover that the poll revealed that geographical support for the wind farm was greatest in Whalsay, Skerries and the North Isles with 47% in favour. Lerwick / Bressay showed 41% in favour. The weakest support came from the Westside with 29% in favour and Nesting / Lunnasting and surrounding areas with 31% in favour.
Clearly postcodes were taken into account, so perhaps not just rhetoric after all.
Gordon Harmer
No rhetoric, and question answered thank you Mike Bennett. Most of the vociferous protesters dismiss this poll out of hand, hence my scepticism at you obvious good use of the facts.