Askham (Far Old Park)

The below text was taken from the online backup of the MAIWAG website at The Internet Archive

M.A.I.W.A.G. stands for Marton, Askam & Ireleth Windfarm Action Group.

Marton, Askam and Ireleth are neighbouring villages located in the south of Cumbria just outside the Lake District National Park, we have four windfarms within a radius of less than 10 kilometres of our villages.

We formed following the construction of PowerGen Renewables' windfarm which towers over our villages. We are ordinary people who have been kick-started into action by the terrible noise, visual and environmental effects that the turbines have had on us and our once peaceful and beautiful countryside.

The reasons for doing this are several but chiefly because:

We were getting no response or satisfaction from Wind Prospect or PowerGen Renewables in our independent letter writing and decided we could form a more co-ordinated campaign by grouping together.

There are some local residents who feel intimidated by speaking out against such a large organisation as PowerGen Renewables; as a group we can offer these people protection by speaking on their behalf.

We can pool our resources - not just financial but individual skills and time for a common goal.

MAIWAG is now a member of Country Guardian, an organisation who provide help and information for those affected by, or under threat of, wind turbines.

Taken from the constitution of MAIWAG, our aims are:

To fight against the windfarm at Far Old Park Farm, Ireleth, Cumbria, the ultimate goal being its removal.

To force the developer to minimise the affects that their turbines are having on our lives in the interim.

To prevent the addition of further unsuitably sited turbines in this area.

To highlight to others the realities of living with turbines and expose the myth of them being "eco-friendly".

To co-ordinate with other action groups to help prevent the construction of wind turbines in other unsuitable sites.