Published at 12:13, Thursday, 22 April 2010

I STRONGLY support the comments made by the Times & Star correspondent, Geoff Fawcett (letters, April 2) who drew attention to the inefficiency of wind farms.

However, members of the Allerdale planning committee must base their decisions on “material planning grounds.”

As far as I am aware, neither the “efficiency” of the turbines nor, indeed, the general wisdom behind the use of wind farms to generate renewable energy is a matter for the planning committee.

Nonetheless, Gordon Brown has said he wants to see a ten-fold increase in the number of wind farms in the UK.

If, therefore, as a community we wish to prevent the further desecration of our “green and pleasant” land, we do require a change of both attitude and policy by this Government.

That, in turn, will require our local MPs to campaign on our behalf for, after all, are they not elected to Parliament to represent us and protect our interests?

Similarly, whilst not a planning matter, the financial arguments against wind farms are overwhelming.

A typical three-megawatt wind turbine will generate about £650,000 income each year, of which £350,000 comes in subsidies (Sunday Times, March 28).

Each turbine costs about £3 million to build and install and will last for 25 years.

So, a conservative estimate suggests that one turbine will generate over £13 million in gross profit.

The mechanics of this payment result in an increase in electricity prices to all consumers.

The subsidy is effectively a hidden tax on all electricity consumers and a huge bribe to providers of highly inefficient, wind farm energy production.

The bitter irony is that we have many people in Cumbria living in fuel poverty; that is, they spend more than 10 per cent of their income on total energy costs.

Unfortunately, these people simply can’t afford ever-increasing energy prices; who amongst us can?

But no one should have to live in fuel poverty, least of all the elderly and the vulnerable, and notwithstanding the winter fuel payment.

Pessimistic assumptions put fuel poverty in the UK at some 2.1 million households in 2009 – a 50 per cent increase over the scale of fuel poverty in 2001.

Far from being a cheap source of energy, wind farms increase the cost to us all.

As if not enough public money is being funnelled into the pockets of wind farm developers, the Lottery fund has also been raided to provide yet more.

The Burbo Bank 25 wind turbine offshore station, off Liverpool and due to be completed in 2010, was awarded a ‘Big Lottery’ grant of £10.4 million.

How very naive of me to think that the Lottery fund was for ‘good causes’.

Finally, Times & Star readers will be interested to learn that 140 wind turbines have been installed or approved in Cumbria, of which 57 per cent are based in Allerdale, and a further 32 wind turbine possibilities are currently being explored in Allerdale; 183 wind turbines have been installed or approved off the Cumbrian coast.

So Allerdale is clearly being singled out for the bulk of wind turbines in Cumbria.

We have had more than enough, surely?

However, and significantly, the cumulative effect of wind farms can now be accepted as a “material planning consideration.”

I strongly urge the Allerdale planning committee, therefore, to make full use of this significance and reject the wind farm proposals for Tallentire Hill and Broughton Lodge.

EDDIE MARTIN
Cumbria County Councillor
Dearham and Broughton
 

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk