New research shows developers cannot count on "the silent
majority" as necessarily supporting a project.
While there was a perception that only "stroppy naysayers"
put in submissions on resource consent applications and the
silent majority was probably in favour, a University of Otago
study into wind farm developments showed that was not true,
Dr Janet Stephenson said last week.
Instead, non-submitters were equally likely to oppose or
support a proposal, but were more lukewarm in their views
than those who lodged submissions, she said.
The research was carried out by Dr Stephenson, from the
university's centre for the study of agriculture, food and
environment, Matthew Hoffman, from the geography department,
and Prof Rob Lawson, from the marketing department.
They interviewed 33 residents living near two proposed wind
farms - Kaiwera Downs in Southland and Mill Creek in
Wellington.
Twenty had made submissions to the wind farm consent
applications and 13 had not.
Despite the small numbers involved, the results were
statistically valid and also surprising, Dr Stephenson said.
"The main surprise was that not all non-submitters were
supportive of the developments.
"They were very much fairly evenly spread across the whole
spectrum of views from support to opposition, but were more
lukewarm in those views than submitters."
The study also found people who chose not to lodge
submissions did not see the resource consent process as a
barrier.
"There is a perception people don't submit because they see
the process as onerous, but our interviews did not bear that
out."
Asked if the findings could be equally applied to community
projects such as Dunedin's Forsyth Barr stadium, Dr
Stephenson said it was "not safe to say".
But she said the topic deserved more research.
"If the opportunity arose, I would be very interested in
rolling out the research more widely to see if the same
results apply to other projects and not just wind farms."
allison.rudd@odt.co.nz
