Windfarm opponent 'manhandled' by Welsh Government energy firm rep

Martin Shipton

A protester against plans for a wind farm in an unspoilt forest area was manhandled out of a public consultation event by a representative of a Welsh Government-owned renewable energy company.

The incident was videoed by another opponent of the scheme and can now be seen on the internet.
It shows a Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru representative seeking to eject the protester, who was holding a placard opposing the scheme, from Abergorlech church hall in Carmarthenshire, where plans for a windfarm at Brechfa East and Pencarreg were being discussed.

The company shut down the meeting prematurely because of the incident, which led to another member of the protest group angrily denouncing the company over its representative’s aggressive behaviour, as can be observed on the video.

Another opponent of the scheme, Ben Plummer, posted a message on Facebook that said: “So do you think you have a right to peaceful protest against a proposed wind farm” without being manhandled ? Think again … take a look at the video in full.

“This is what appears to be a @Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru employee or representative, so given it’s entirely owned and funded by the taxpayer it’s effectively a Welsh Government employee or representative. Although according to eye witnesses they refused to give their name.

“They look to me to be manhandling a concerned member of the public who was peacefully and quietly demonstrating against the Trydan Glyn Cothi wind farm proposal at a public consultation. This then seems to escalate quickly to the point the unnamed member of staff or representative tries to physically remove him from the village hall causing totally unnecessary anguish and upset.

"This is then further heightened when either the unnamed person or someone else from Trydan called the police. For a peaceful protester with a placard. Six members of the Police then turn up in three police vehicles to talk to the peaceful protester. If anything it should have been the other way round.

“Definitely NOT the way to engage with the local community which Trydan claims to care so much about.

“I get that different people decide to put their own view across in the way they are most comfortable with, and that is their right. What is not in ANY way acceptable is this member of staff treating this gentleman in the way they did.

“As far as I am aware there was no sort of apology and as you can see in the video the gentleman left the small village hall on his own, probably worried for his own safety. It’s outrageous.

“I was not there for the actual confrontation, someone sent me the video but I actually spoke to the gentleman afterwards and he was clearly still very upset as to the way he was treated which is totally understandable telling me that he was just sat there when he ‘got up in my face’ and then ‘he tried to force me into an arm lock’ It has not deterred him from presenting his views. It’s good to see that the government’s actions aren’t going to break his resolve, and long may that continue.

“He like many of us have valid concerns about onshore wind power and the ‘gold rush’ that is going on at the moment with large multinationals, desperately scrabbling to turn rural Wales from the beautiful natural treasure, home and rural workplace it is that helps feed the nation into an industrial wasteland blighted by microplastic waste from the turbine blades, infrasound that damages health, fire risks, noise pollution, destruction of nature, ruin dark skies areas, alter water tables, destroy peatland, scar the landscape forever. It’s like governments don’t learn anything. It’s a highly emotive subject and tensions can be high but the way that Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru handled this was appalling and does the opposite of building trust.

“The inspirational speech by the lady there definitely deserved the round of applause it got at the end. And the gentleman should be praised for having the courage to have his say and wanting to continue to do so.”

'Win-win'

Writing on Substack, local environmental campaigner Annie Zak stated: The Trydan handout I picked up on arrival at Abergorlech church hall promised that: ‘Locating wind farms on our windy hilltops within commercial forestry is a win-win, because it’s adding something that delivers multiple benefits and doesn’t take anything away.’

“Those words seem neat on paper — tidy, clever, conclusive. But they didn’t reflect what I experienced.

“I attended the first consultation event, intending just to listen quietly and take notes. Within fifteen minutes, I had to leave the hall.

“Around me, people were in a state of shock. One woman, describing where her family walks and rides, suddenly broke down in tears. Another said she’d already lived through the construction of the earlier Brechfa Forest West wind farm and couldn’t face it again.
“A couple stood staring in disbelief at the digital display — they’d come expecting to see one turbine from their home and instead discovered they would see 10.

“These weren’t professional protesters or political campaigners — just local residents trying to understand how a forest long woven into their community’s heritage had been redrawn on paper as an industrial construction site.

“As I was leaving, one of the consultants stopped me and asked whether I had all the information I needed.

“I told her what I’d just witnessed: a room full of ordinary people, hurt and bewildered. An expression of community pain.’Oh dear,’ she said, before adding that “‘t must be done — we have to save the planet.’

“That sentence keeps returning to haunt me — not for what it meant, but for how harshly it was delivered.

“If ‘saving the planet’ involves tearing up peat bogs, carving haul roads through public forests, stressing communities, and bringing some to tears, while labelling it a ‘win-win’ situation, then something has gone badly wrong with the story we are telling ourselves about climate change.

“Brechfa Forest is not a blank industrial site — it is a living landscape, part of the Afon Cothi and Tywi catchments, home to otters, bats, dormice and people who still feel rooted there. It’s even the site of the Brechfa Forest Garden — an arboretum of global tree species and a forest trail that reminds us this place is valued for more than timber. Calling it a ‘commercial forest’ makes it sound expendable…

“A ‘win-win’ should leave everyone standing. This one doesn’t. It takes away trees, peat, peace and trust, and replaces them with uncertainty.

“It divides neighbours and fills a hall with anguish and tears. That isn’t climate action; it’s a sign of how disconnected our decision-making has become from the places it affects.

“The climate emergency is real — but so is the nature emergency, and so is the need to keep faith with the people who live closest to these landscapes. The UK and the Welsh governments cannot protect the planet by destroying the very ecosystems that store its carbon and the communities that care for them.

“The real win-win would be learning how to generate clean energy without erasing the land that sustains us.”

Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru was invited to comment, but has not done so.