Wind turbines are not necessarily popular with the general public, so we thought it would be a good idea to produce a leaflet detailing the basics of our proposal. This contained a few photos with the turbine photoshopped into the landscape, to give people an idea of what the it might look like. We included some information about our milking cows, and some indication of the carbon dioxide that may be saved. We also of course included contact details.
My wife and I then knocked on the doors of the 15 or so houses that will overlook the turbine. Perhaps to our surprise, we received a positive response from nearly everybody. After speaking face to face with the closest neighbours, we also put the leaflet in the local parish magazine. We did expect opposition, but all bar one of the responses were positive, in fact supportive of what we were trying to do. And everyone appreciated the local contact so that they heard about it from us, not read it in the newspaper.
I am sure that, come the planning application, this will turn out to be a very helpful exercise.
