Banks

Banks Renewables. Development with care.... Here's an example of how much they care... a letter from the local paper:

Dear Sir,

Mr Dyke, the Banks Renewables representative seeks to duck the key issues relating to the pollution caused by workings at the Armistead wind farm site (Article, ‘Windfarm Threat to Protected Species’, WG August 1st). Firstly he refers to the ‘extremely intense wet weather conditions ….overwhelming their defenses’. Although we have indeed had a great deal of rain, it is wrong to describe the conditions as extreme. As the Honorary Manager of Burns Beck Moss SSSI since 1997, I presented evidence at the Armistead Public Inquiry explaining that such flooding (with unpolluted water) had occurred 16 times between 1999 and 2008 and that it was likely to occur every time the rainfall exceeded 40mm in the preceding 24 hours. That is exactly what happened, except that this time it was with heavily polluted water. Their defenses were clearly inadequate to discharge their duties.

He also states that he was ‘…unaware of any evidence on white-clawed crayfish’, an endangered and legally protected species. He has clearly never read the Environmental Assessment, which Banks Renewables themselves produced to support their application. In Chapter 7 there are long sections on this species. It states that ‘…the presence of white-clawed crayfish was confirmed in two water courses, Gillsmere Syke and Gillsmere Nook stream.’ These were the two streams that were most polluted in the recent incident. This risk was also clear from the evidence presented orally and in writing by Anthony Fitzherbert at the Armistead Public Inquiry. In it he said, ‘The species requires clear, peat free and unpolluted water to survive.’ As Mr Harpley from Cumbria Wildlife Trust points out, white-clawed crayfish are highly sensitive to such pollution and will almost certainly have been killed.

In their literature on the proposed Killington wind farm, Banks Renewables are again promoting the slogan ‘Development With Care’. But their behaviour at Armistead has shown what it really is - nothing but a hollow sham.

Dr Mike Hall, Honorary Manager, Burns Beck Moss SSSI