In the newspaper “Istotne Informacje” (issue 30), we reported that on 14 September 2010, a meeting concerning the construction of a wind farm in Warta Bolesławiecka municipality was held at the Community Centre in Tomaszów Bolesławiecki. Around 200 municipal residents protested against the wind turbines.

Mayor Mirosław Haniszewski assured those present that no binding decision had yet been made. He also argued that it was not too late to block construction of the wind farm. The municipal residents attending the meeting voted against the investment. The mayor announced that he would comply with the protesters’ decision.

In January this year, the investor organised a meeting with municipal residents. Beata Butwicka, then spokesperson for Green Bear, later wrote in an email to the editorial office:

The Mayor of Warta Bolesławiecka Municipality, as he himself said, represents the residents and their will in the matter of the wind farm. In the name of that will, he can do a great deal. He may even exercise a right to something for which he previously accepted money. He may also take part in sabotaging a meeting devoted to explaining concerns about the wind farm project and fail to react to the scandalous behaviour of a group of committed and aggressive opponents of the wind farm.

For the Friday meeting with residents, the Investor (GB Bolesławiec202 limited liability company) rented a hall belonging to the Warta Bolesławiecka Municipal Office at the Community Centre in Tomaszów Bolesławiecki, signing an order and paying the invoice for the hall rental in advance [...]. Imagine the investor’s surprise when, during preparations for the meeting, arranging the presentation and setting up the chairs, a group of people entered the hall and, presenting a letter from the Municipal Mayor, began setting up its own presentation on the stage (a huge installation imitating a wind turbine). The aggressive representatives of the “Bezpieczna Gmina Warta Bolesławiecka” association, who greeted the Investor’s representatives with insults, did not respond to requests to leave the hall, explaining that, firstly, they were at home, in their own Community Centre, and secondly, that they had the Mayor’s permission to do so! [...]

The meeting turned into a demonstration of the opponents’ aggression, pushing those who had come as guests and sabotaging every attempt to start the meeting amicably.

The region’s hosts—the Bolesławiec County Governor and the Mayor of Warta Bolesławiecka Municipality—calmly watched this embarrassing brawl. Neither used their authority either to allow the meeting to take place or to ensure that it ended in a civilised manner. In the hall, where people could sign in support of the wind farm, residents who wanted to do so were grabbed and intimidated.

The mayor rejects the allegations

“I do not have the means to prohibit anyone from behaving in this way,” Mayor Mirosław Haniszewski replies. “The police deal with such matters. Was I supposed to gag the meeting participants? I don’t think that is my role.”

“Nor can I be responsible for how the meeting is organised,” the mayor of Warta continues. “Residents asked me whether they could bring their banners. I believe I could not forbid them from doing so.”

Mirosław Kopczyński, head of the Municipal Cultural Centre in Warta Bolesławiecka, emphasises that, as far as he is concerned, the matter does not exist. “After the meeting, the company did not contact us with a complaint. There was no protest either. All payments were settled,” he notes.

The investor does not give up

Janusz Berger, the current spokesperson for Green Bear, informed the editorial staff of the portal and newspaper “Istotne Informacje” that another meeting between the investor’s representatives and the mayor took place on 11 February. “We reaffirmed our desire to carry out the investment and to pursue an even more open dialogue with the local authorities. We also presented a package of specific financial benefits, which was originally to have been presented at the meeting with residents on 14 January this year but, for obvious reasons, was not presented. Let me merely remind you that the group protesting against the investment prevented the meeting from beginning. In addition, we informed the mayor that we were beginning to look for local companies and skilled workers to whom we could entrust some of the construction work involved in building the wind farm,” Berger wrote.

(ii information)