Letter: Objections to wind farms

Sir: Richard North now produces a second article within a month on the wind turbine application by Sir Simon Gourlay for Stonewall Hill ('Points of view differ in power struggle over skyline', 26 May).

Mr North is happy to repeat the remark of Sir Simon alleging the existence of a 'rent-a-crowd' element from an existing wind turbine development at Llandinam. The fact is that Sir Simon's application is seriously defective, particularly in its treatment of environmental questions, and the presentation of his case at the meeting in Presteigne on 19 April produced a hostile reaction from an audience made up almost entirely from the immediate area.

More than 1,200 letters have so far been received by Leominster and Radnor District Councils objecting to the application, a number far in excess of that generated by previous planning applications. Perhaps Sir Simon considers that they were all written by a small coterie of politically motivated outsiders?

There is no disagreement about the importance of renewable energy, but turbine farms, like any other energy source, involve costs both environmental and economic. One of the costs of the rapid growth of wind farms on the back of lavish subsidies is that involved in pre-empting other forms of renewable energy and, more generally, in allowing the Government to avoid producing a long-term energy policy which considers the various forms of renewable energy.

In the case of the proposed Stonewall Hill development, we consider the returns too small and the costs far too high.

Yours etc,

DANIEL McDOWELL

Secretary

Stonewall Hill Action Committee

Presteigne, Powys

26 May