Are PPLAN Nimby’s?

Dictionary definition of a NIMBY

A dictionary definition of a NIMBY is a “person who objects to the siting of something perceived as unpleasant or hazardous in the area where they live, especially while raising no such objections to similar developments elsewhere”.

This page explores the validity of the claim that PPLAN members are NIMBY’s.

The PPLAN  Membership – raising objections elsewhere

The membership of PPLAN appears to be a broad church, and the editor of this website cannot speak for all the members.

When I’ve spoken to PPLAN members, however, it does appear that there is a consensus that clean renewable energy is desirable. Personally I would add the proviso “provided it can be supplied at a competitive price without the need for subsidy“, which does not seem to be the case.

I’m not aware of many members having raised objections elsewhere, but is it a bad thing to seek to protect one’s neighbourhood? Afterall, people belonging to Neighbourhood Watch schemes aren’t trying to stop crime across the country!

So whilst the “raising no such objections to similar developments elsewhere” may be true, I question whether it is a bad thing – surely everyone should seek to protect their neighbourhood, and if everyone sought to do this, wouldn’t the world be a better place?

Objectors – geographical spread

PPLAN has analysed the geographical spread of responses lodged on the Malvern Hills District Council Planning Portal just after the close of the consultation period (as of 23rd March 2025 to be precise) in relation to this planning application.

The results are shown on the map below. Note that the map only includes residents who have gone onto the portal themselves, as opposed to the survey forms loaded by RWE’s propaganda company, Yourshout.

In the map below, red dots indicate the post code of objectors, and green dots the postcodes of supporters of the plan.

So we can see that:

• Yes there is some clustering of responses from people living on the Hospital Lane estate adjacent to the proposed site of the development
• However, many objections come from Collets Green, Malvern, Worcester, Callow End etc, so much further afield.

Simply claiming that PPLAN members are nimby’s is just lazy and ill-informed. The evidence clearly shows otherwise. We are simply residents seeking to protect some traditional British countryside and heritage. Most of us don’t have properties directly affected by the development, we simply think it is wrong, on so many counts, to destroy forever, some beautiful British countryside in the setting of a national treasure, the Malvern Hills.

We can’t put all our material on our website as quickly as me might want to as we don’t have the marketing budget that multi-billon euro German company Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk (RWE) that wants to build this industrial scale development presumably has. We do it when we can.

This, by the way, is the same RWE that sues European governments for compensation as those governments’ climate change policies affect their mining businesses. False information or scare mongering? – well check this article out from SKY News.

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