Michael Kaare Jensen is one of the citizens in Skanderborg Municipality who may be affected by a future 150-meter wind turbine.
That is why he joined the dialogue group between citizens, project developers and the municipality, which was established in connection with the municipality's upcoming five renewable energy projects. But he experiences that the municipality manipulates the minutes that are posted from the meetings. This is reported by TV2 Østjylland.
- We feel that we have been used to give the green light to this project. We feel that the municipality has wanted to downplay the negative consequences and highlight the positive effects of the project, says Michael Kaare Jensen.
The citizen groups around the renewable energy projects should provide an opportunity to involve citizens and hear their opinions and attitudes. But according to Michael Kaare Jensen and the other citizens from Mesing, it was not done properly.
- We had all approved the minutes from a meeting on March 10, but before it was posted on the municipality's website, the municipality changed the minutes and posted them. This is what we others call forgery and is deeply reprehensible, says Michael Kaare Jensen.
Question: What have they changed?
- Among other things, they have changed some formulations about the size of our loss of value, and they have doubted that this also applies to the Mesing area, he says.
Municipality acknowledges
In the minutes of the subsequent meeting, Skanderborg Municipality acknowledges the incident.
- The municipality has changed the approved minutes. This change was not reported in the consultation round, but was introduced immediately before the minutes were presented. (…) The municipality's representatives acknowledge that there should have been no changes to the approved minutes, the minutes from the meeting on April 10th state.
The municipality also subsequently chooses to remove the amended minutes and put the originals back up.
- In a dialogue, that is not a way to work, and we are very dissatisfied with that, says Michael Kaare Jensen.
It is not only the citizens of Mesing who are left with that experience. The citizens' group at Nissumgaard near Gl. Gjesing has also experienced that certain things were subsequently removed from the minutes.
- If you do not communicate exactly what happened at the meetings, then it is a sham process. So it's hard to say that we are taken seriously, and it doesn't really matter what we say, says Nicolai Tolstrup, a member of the citizens' group at Nissumgaard.
Municipal researcher: Not okay
And the municipality's actions are not okay, says municipal researcher Roger Buch.
- It is a problem that a municipal administration reports distortedly. There is a general truth requirement that means that all public employees must stick to the truth, says Roger Buch, municipal researcher and research manager at the Danish School of Media and Journalism.
The renewable energy projects were launched based on Skanderborg Municipality's desire to be able to produce green electricity equivalent to the municipality's total consumption in 2030. But there are parts of the process that have not gone as they should, Skanderborg Municipality admits.
- It was something (ed. minutes) that had come up too quickly. We made a mistake there. We have apologized to the citizens in this project, says Jakob Sønderskov Weber, Trade Coordinator for Renewable Energy in Skanderborg Municipality.
Question: Why do you choose to delete and change things in the minutes?
- There are some things that we have chosen to say that we do not think were what happened at the meetings. That is not what was said, says Jakob Sønderskov Weber.
According to Skanderborg Municipality, project developers and citizens have often been very far apart.
- We are three parties who must all be able to see that the minutes are adequate for the dialogue that took place. And sometimes that has just been difficult. And we ended up posting some minutes that were not approved all the way around, he says.
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