Windfarm petition reaches 500 signatures
Shetland Times
A petition calling for SIC councillors to turn down the invitation to celebratory events marking the completion of the Viking Energy windfarm has already attracted 500 signatures.
It comes after an appeal was lodged on Change.org, which urged elected members not to attend a celebratory dinner on Monday, followed by a ceremony the next day.
The petition was started by tour operator and Shetland Times columnist, Laurie Goodlad, who is opposed to the Viking Energy windfarm.
It comes less than a week after the windfarm officially went live, just as it was revealed energy giant SSE had received more than £2 million in so-called constraint payments to keep its turbines switched off.
The payments are provided to windfarm developers at times when the generated capacity exceeds the capacity of the network to transfer where it is needed.
The petition reads: “We, the undersigned, request that our elected and appointed representatives do not attend an event celebrating a project that has caused significant division in our community.
“Alistair Phillips-Davies (CEO of SSE) has said they are already planning more projects for Shetland and stated that community benefits should not be so extensive as to make it ‘uneconomic to bring in the assets in the first place’.
“These projects lack the social license to operate here, and so should not be supported by representatives and community leaders.
“By attending this event, representatives would be endorsing practices that are not in Shetland’s interests.”
The petition can be found here.
- Do you have strong opinions on the petition? Email your thoughts as a letter to editorial@shetlandtimes.co.uk
