Campaign locally

If you're part of an established group, or able to get together a few like-minded individuals for a day, getting active on the high street is one of the most effective ways of building a pro-wind campaign. A good way to reach a large number of people is to set up a stall in a busy area of town.

• Think carefully about where you want to be located. In some cases you may just want to reach the most number of people, in others you might want to address a particular audience such as tourists.
• Check if you need to obtain permission or a permit from the local authority (e.g. the district council or London borough).
• Ask how often you can use the location and if there are any restrictions on the type of equipment that can be set up.
• You will need to check whether there are any regulations on selling items such as badges and/or taking donations.
• Things that you might need for your stall: folding table, leaflets, stickers, an easel for posters, a donation box, sign up sheets for those interested in getting involved, a plastic cover in case it rains, string or paperweights to stop leaflets from blowing away and most important of all gaffer tape and scissors!.
• It's important to have something on the stall that people can do if they want to support their local wind farm. One idea is to have sample letters, addressed to the relevant person and written in support of the wind farm. People can then just sign the letter and leave it with you to send. This is more effective then asking them to send it as you can guarantee that the letters are actually sent and you can take a copy of them so that you have your own record of how many people are in favour. Alternatively, you can ask people to sign a petition in favour of the wind farm and then hand it to the relevant official. If you hand the petition/letters over in person then you may be able to get local media interested in covering the event (see more information on using the media).
• Another way of registering local support for a wind farm is to do a street poll. This can be particularly effective if you are trying to find out the views of specific groups such as tourists or people that live near to a wind farm. Polls can be a simple yes or no vote or a series of questions such as: would the wind farm mean that you were more/less/equally likely to visit the area? Should we be building more wind farms to stop climate change? Remember that people will be more likely to take part if you don't take up too much of their time! This can be a real way of proving public support for a wind farm and of debunking claims that wind farms will damage tourism. Once you've collected poll results, signatures or letters you may want to turn the handing in of them into a photo opportunity for the media. Click here to read an example press release.
• As well street campaigning there are loads of other events you could organise: gigs, fetes, festivals, picnics. Read what Adam Twine organised as part of his campaign.

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