Suffering from a sore knee, aching shoulder and blisters is not the ideal preparation for a 120-mile protest walk, but for Nick Larder the cause is far more important than injuries suffered from a rugby match on Tuesday night!
Fifty-five-year-old Nick is livid. So livid in fact that he set off from Welshpool Town Hall this morning to walk all the way to Cardiff to protest the multi-billion pound energy plans that have incensed Montgomeryshire.
The Manafon resident (second from left) says he has been tricked by Governments pushing what he now calls the “green scam” and revealed that just an hour’s research changed his opinion on windfarms which once saw him singing their praises.
“I have been conned. We have all been conned,” said Nick, who is known in rugby circles as ‘The Doc”. “It is a green scam that sucked us all in. The hard fact is that these wind farms simply do not justify the subsidies and the money that is being ploughed into them.”
Nick set off this morning, accompanied by County Times chief reporter Richard Jones (left) and fellow campaigners Ifan Davies (second right), from Welshpool, and Oili Hedman (right) who lives near Newtown. They were seen off by 50 protesters who brought the town centre to a standstill with patient motorists tooting their horns in support.
The walk will take five days and 120 miles before he reaches the steps of the Welsh Assembly headquarters where up to 1,500 other protesters are expected to congregate for a mass protest led by Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies.
“I started to look more into the issue after arguments with my brother in the USA, who is against them,” explained Nick. “It only took me an hour of research when I got home to realise I had been wrong all these years. My views completely flipped the other way.”
Residents in Montgomeryshire are furious at plans to turn the shire into a giant energy site which will include nearly 1,000 huge turbines as well as a 19-acre substation and hundreds of pylons to carry miles of cables.
The Cardiff demonstration will call for a review into the Assembly’s Tan8 agreement which has allowed untouched countryside to be earmarked for the developments.
Nick continued: “In 2005 there was a scramble to hit targets set by such things as the Kyoto Agreement and to find ways of producing renewable energy. In this scramble, vast amounts of subsidy were promised and the wind turbine industry was ready to exploit the money. Yet all these wind farms (even with all the new ones envisaged) will only produce a tiny proportion of our energy needs - and very often at times when we don't really need it.
“TAN 8 is bad policy which is now hopelessly behind the times. No sane person would build these wind farms here except that current government policy and subsidy enables an industry to make money, permanently despoiling our countryside in the process. When they come to their senses in the not too distant future, they won't reinstate everything as it was beforehand. It will be too late.
“This is why I am walking - it is not too late to get our new governments in Cardiff and Westminster to catch up with us.”
Nick pointed out that the subsidies would be better invested in placing solar panels on every Montgomeryshire house but smirked when he added “of course this would be eating into the energy company’s profits”.
Meanwhile, Richard, who is the County Times’ chief reporter, explained why he is going the extra mile for the cause.
"This is a huge issue for Mid Wales and not just a story for a newspaper. I really do urge people to turn out in their droves and show Cardiff politicians the strength of feeling in Montgomeryshire," he said. "If you are feeling fit and up for a challenge then why not join Nick, Ifan, Oili and myself for a few miles on our walk from Welshpool to Cardiff."
Mywelshpool and mynewtown will be printing full logistical details ahead of Tuesday’s ‘Cardiff invasion’.