YouTube is a feature of everyday life for younger generations but a pair of silver surfers from Fife have used the video-sharing site to highlight a community project.
Plans to build a wind farm in Newburgh have been cause for debate but 73-year-old Irene Cumming and old school friend Bob Batchelor (74) hope their video will help unite the community behind the scheme.
Supporters have even launched a tongue-in-cheek bid to make T-shirts incorporating pictures of the couple and Bob’s new catchphrase, “It’s a town, not a village.”
Irene and Bob are members of the Newburgh Community Trust, which has applied for permission to construct a wind farm on a local hill. It is envisaged that cash generated from the scheme will be poured back into the town.
Irene believes the benefits could be huge and urged members of the public to back the ambitious proposals.
“There has been a bit of flak flying at the project and we just wanted to try to highlight some of the good points,” Irene told The Courier. “The community trust were hoping some people would go on YouTube and it ended up being myself and Bob who did it.”
Irene and Bob have lived in the area all their lives. They are sure the town would enjoy considerable rewards if the trust application is approved.
Irene says she “fell in love” with turbines on a trip to visit one of her sons who had set up home in Denmark. In the video she describes being so impressed she ended up hugging a turbine.
“You see hundreds of these turbines abroad but hardly any in Britain and I just wanted to jump on the bandwagon,” she said.
Irene believes the benefits of the proposed wind farm could be highly lucrative for Newburgh, suggesting a new leisure centre for the town would be one potential outcome.
Bob is similarly persuaded.
“Pylons are an eyesore…wind turbines certainly look much better,” he said. “Also the noise they produce is virtually non-existent.”
A spokesman for the Newburgh community trust said, “If approved, these turbines will generate electricity with no environmental impact, around the clock and around the year for as long as the wind blows.”