Some Shelburne County residents are upset at what they’re calling a ‘lack of community consultation’ over a proposed wind-farm project in Sandy Point.
They’ve asked the Municipality of Shelburne to withdraw a letter of support written to the province in July.
The letter was requested by the company ABO Wind and Community Wind Farms Inc, who have proposed a ten turbine wind farm in the area.
Jordan Ferry resident David Huddleston owns property near the site, and says he was never consulted.
“We’ve now got about 350-400 signatures of people who want this process stopped, and re-started, with proper public consultation,” says Huddleston.
He says the process has been flawed from the beginning.
“In fact, it has generated a great deal of anger and dismay in the part of people who have invested their lives in these places, and now are having these issues dumped on them.”
In a letter written to council in June, the President of ABO Wind, Bill MacLean, stated he had ‘widespread approval from the landowner base.’
The group ‘Sandy Point Wind Concerned Citizens’ says MacLean recently stated that only a few of the several hundred landowners have actually been contacted.
In the letter of support, the municipality said the project would align with their vision to develop more renewable energy projects, and their support is in principle, and of wind farm energy in general.
After hearing community concerns at their last meeting in September, council will consider revoking the letter at tonight’s meeting.
On their website, ABO Wind says Sandy Point Wind has a capacity of up to 80 megawatts of clean renewable energy and power from the site will help meet the Nova Scotia goal to close all coal-fired power plants by 2030.
They say much of the construction will be done by local businesses, and wouldn’t be finished until 2024.
