Letters | 10 March 2012

Blowback

Sir: Matt Ridley’s article ‘The Winds of Change’ (3 March) says that the government has finally seen through the wind energy scam. If this is the case, it is most welcome news to those who have been fighting on all fronts to keep Britain’s countryside clear of unwelcome, unnecessary and inappropriate wind farms.
In Mr Ridley’s own county, Northumberland, the amount of wind farm capacity planned and already with planning permission exceeds that in any other English county by several times. If the government is serious about its change of heart, and has at last appreciated the extent to which it has been hoodwinked by the wind industry, it should at once take steps to ensure that county planning policies are changed to prevent such development proceeding. Currently it seems that ‘the urgent need for wind energy’ and the ‘benefits arising from renewable energy’, quoted in every planning officer’s report, trump almost every other policy designed to protect and enhance the rural environment and economy.
Andrew Joicey
Northumberland

Sir: What a brilliant article by Matt Ridley!  He sums up everything we laymen have suspected about the wind-farm fashion.  Here in Bath (a world heritage city) plans were seriously considered to put a 240ft wind turbine up on the hills south of the city, on a very visible location.  A local and fairly notorious landowner was pushing the scheme. Only after mass protests from large numbers of citizens who lived a few hundred yards from the site and the threat of Unesco taking away Bath’s coveted status did the Liberal Democrat-led city council reluctantly drop the scheme. The very thought of destroying the views of Bath for this ridiculous greeny chimera defies belief.  But then again the city planners ‘sacked’ Bath of much of its architectural heritage in the 1970s, as is well documented.  Wind energy is just another vain, foolish project of the self-righteous state.