National Trust comes out against ‘public menace’ of wind farms
What is the National Trust for? I thought it was meant to be about managing national assets for the benefit of the community as a charity. Having played a prominent campaigning role on the National Planning Policy Framework, which seemed to me to have potentially political hues (although I acknowledge that is a matter of opinion rather than fact) it is now at war with itself over wind farms as this article points out:
“For years the conservation charity has been a supporter of renewable energy, including wind, to reduce carbon emissions and help fight global warming. But in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Sir Simon Jenkins warned that wind was the “least efficient” form of green power, and risked blighting the British landscape.” The Trust has distanced itself from his position as set out in the following article which tells us:
“But a spokesman for the trust said Tuesday that “our chairman has long-held views on wind that don’t necessarily chime with our current views as an organisation on wind”. Asked if it was true that the organisation was “deeply sceptical” about wind, the spokesman said: “No, our position hasn’t changed on renewable energy.”
Charities of the size and scale of the National Trust have a privileged position in terms of our national life – in this case with assets of over £1 billion and very significant tax and other benefits from the public sector deriving from charitable status. The Trust is as large as some public departments but seems to have little in the way of the accountability requirements national public bodies face. I wonder if applying the same rules of accountability appropriate to small single issue focused local and even more modest national charities, to the Trust and other very big charities, provides enough in the way of checks and balances for those who run them – in view of all the muscle and influence they posses? Particularly when they enter into aggressive campaigning modes?
There has been previous disquiet about the way the organisation campaigns, in 2007 Charity Commissioners investigated the role of the Trust in terms of campaigning on green belt issues.
One thing is certain the ongoing core business of the Trust continues to thrive with them having achieved a record year for visits.