No winners in Fullabrook wind farm plan
Usually when an argument reaches its conclusion there are winners and losers. In the case of the Fullabrook wind farm however, apart from Devon Wind Power, I believe there are no winners, only losers.
Having spent £148,095 fighting the proposal, North Devon Council can now expect ordure and ridicule to be poured over it. In some ways this is not deserved although, I have to say, in others it is more than justified.
The adoption of their Renewable Energy Action Plan in June 2006 is a case in point. In my letter ( Journal , December, 21 2006) I wrote: “…Referring to their Renewable Energy Action Plan the council strategy is, ‘If we control the type, numbers and location of a few turbines, we can resist applications from the commercial operators’. Quite how they square this circle is completely beyond comprehension…”
With that particular chicken coming home to roost, they are now powerless to oppose any further applications.
The people of North Devon have been saddled with these monuments to the vanity, arrogance and downright cowardice of the Government in the face of European Union diktats on renewable energy policy. Regrettably the full realisation of what is to come will only dawn on the local population when the turbines begin to sprout and people see the scale of the monsters. By then it will be too late to reverse the damage which will be wreaked on the local economy.
Yes, I know that Devon Wind Power has promised £3.4 million but this might as well be the 30 pieces of silver for all the good it will do. Some five years ago Nick Harvey MP wrote that if tourism dropped by 3% it would mean a loss of £20 million to the wider economy of North Devon. £3.4 million won’t plug that hole!
As for the Green Party and others, they are obviously cock-a-hoop at their perceived success. Sadly I believe history will prove it a pyrrhic victory because all these lobby groups persist in using information which has been repeatedly proven to be based upon flawed science. Unfortunately they believe they have right on their side because they endorse the propaganda espoused by the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change. They have yet to realise they are the unwitting, unthinking pawns in what I believe to be the biggest scam ever perpetrated upon humanity.
BOB ASHTON,
Homer Close,
Bratton Fleming.
9 October 2008
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