LEGAL EAGLES
WIND ENERGY DEVELOPMENTS AND THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
The planning, construction and operation of any renewable energy facility involves considerable expense and time in terms of technical and regulatory input in order to satisfy the regulatory authorities and obtain all of the necessary consents to enable the project to proceed.
However there is another important aspect of any renewable project beyond the need to satisfy regulatory requirements: the need to satisfy the local community that the project will neither blight the area nor adversely affect their lifestyle, property values, or local environment.
WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS The battle for hearts and minds is an integral part of any renewable project. The general view is that large renewables companies have endless pots of money with which to fund expensive PR campaigns. It may be true that the developer has a greater budget than those who may be campaigning against the project but nevertheless, there needs to be a level playing field between the parties in terms of what can and cannot be said in any war of words.
ESTABLISHING THE ‘RULES OF THE GAME’
The recent decision of the Advertising Standards Authority on 24 July 2013 has gone a long way to establishing the ‘rules of the game’, and in particular ensuring that those who campaign against such renewable projects do so in a fair and balanced manner.
The Committee of Advertising Practice is the body responsible for creating, revising and enforcing a number of codes on advertising in the UK. The Advertising Standards Authority administers all of the codes prepared by the committee of advertising practice. One of those codes of practice is the UK Code Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing. Its provisions include those relating to misleading advertising and substantiation.
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In terms of misleading advertising, marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. In terms of substantiation, before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove the claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective are capable of objective substantiation. The Advertising Standards Authority can regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.
CASE STUDY - GRANGE FARM WIND FARM
In a recent case the developers of the grange Farm wind farm made a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority relating to a leaflet campaigning against its proposed windfarm development at the site, which was published by an anti- windfarm campaign group ‘Stop Grange Farm wind Farm’. The leaflet featured an image of a wind turbine in a field next to trees, electricity pylons and a cement works chimney. Text next to the image stated ‘scale photo montage of one turbine on the site at grange Farm. westbury white horse Lafarge chimney shown’.
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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