Further details have been disclosed about the financial and other arrangements behind the proposed turbines on land in Parkhurst Forest rented to Partnerships for Renewables (PfR) by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
The Island’s MP Andrew Turner organised a meeting on 2nd April with the Prisons Minister Jeremy Wright MP, which was attended by local residents Dr John Yelland, Roy Scott and Isle of Wight Councillor Richard Hollis. During the meeting the Minister agreed that he would review the potential costs associated with the MoJ terminating the lease agreement. He also confirmed that the MoJ was not working in partnership with PfR, contrary to claims they had made.
The Minister has now advised Mr Turner that if the proposal were to go ahead each turbine would have the potential to earn PfR up to £13m over 20 years, meaning that early termination of the lease is ‘unlikely to come cheaply’. He has also confirmed that PfR have apologised for ‘mistakenly’ using the MoJ logo in a newsletter in July 2013; and they have been instructed not to use it.
As of the time of this press release from Andrew Turner, the website of PfR still claims that they are working with the MoJ and displays the MoJ’s logo. The planning permission for the turbines is solely a matter for the Isle of Wight Council as the local planning authority.
Mr Turner said:
“Partnerships for Renewables appear to have a complete disregard for rules and indeed, it seems, the truth. With so much money at stake they presumably consider it worth trying to give the misleading impression that their proposals are in some way supported by the Government – they are not. My impression is that their rather lax attitude on this is extended to other areas of this application. I am writing to the Isle of Wight Council to make the position clear and to the Prisons Minister to make sure he is aware of this continuing misrepresentation.”
Dr Yelland commented on the proposed project:
“It’s quite a challenge to find where that huge sum of money would go, with PfR’s complex web of over 40 subsidiaries and holding companies, and with venture capitalist and foreign investment funds as major shareholders. We do know that PfR’s average salary has been over £60,000 and that the chief executive has been paid more than the Prime Minister; not bad for a company of 30 or so employees. We also know where most of the money comes from; it’s from us, all UK taxpayers and electricity consumers.
Article continues below this advertisement “In a previous press release (9th April 2014), it was reported that the Minister was most displeased to find PfR were falsely claiming to be in partnership with the MoJ and were using the MoJ logo without permission, both on the PfR website and in PfR publications. I was amused to see that even part of the PfR’s reported response appears to be given on behalf of the MoJ. The false claims and the unauthorised logos are still on the PfR website. PfR’s response also claimed that the turbines would not be in the Forest. Perhaps the local media could show readers exactly where they would be, and how tall they are, at 7 to 10 times the height of the forest canopy and 18 times the height of a two storey house.
“Fortunately the Government now seems to understand that the wind rush is in fact a gold rush, and that developers are subsidy farmers, not wind farmers, and certainly not the concerned, dedicated environmentalists that they pretend to be.”
UPDATE @ 14:59 – The logo has been removed from the website and was still displayed due to a minor error.
