One fears for the democracy of our planning system now that the sharks of the wind-power industry have their teeth firmly embedded in the underbelly of government (your report, 30 September).
All three applications in Sutherland drew in objections relating to impact on landscape, tourism and property value. All over the United Kingdom large numbers of objections are made against wind-power schemes, and yet there are few, if any, letters of support from the 70 or 80 per cent of us who are said to favour wind farms.
Just south of the Border, a wind-farm proposal at Allonby, Cumbria, recently drew 1,000 objections, while in south Wales, the Welsh Assembly received more than 3,100 objections and just nine letters of support for a wind farm at Scarweather Sand, offshore from Porthcawl. Despite this unprecedented response, the assembly overturned a public inquiry decision and has permitted the development.
Throughout the United Kingdom, tens of thousands of us know the developers are misrepresenting the saving of emissions. Their aim is to grab the huge subsidy of the Renewables Obligation, financed out of all consumers’ bills.
Unless we have concerted countrywide action soon, the flood of wind power applications will become a destructive and uncontrollable torrent.
(DR) JOHN R ETHERINGTON
Llanhowell
Pembrokeshire
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/10/03/myriad-objections-to-wind-factory-planning-applications-are-ignored/