Local TV news coverage on February 12 had an item on the noise systems installed to try to deter vandalism and/or unsocial behaviour close to shopping centres by younger age groups. The result of an obvious survey found that “older people cannot hear the sounds put out on the systems”.
They are now deemed to be dangerous to health for the people affected, and the companies/ authorities are being told to remove them.
Isn’t it strange that since 1991, when the first wind farm was built in Britain, that all over the UK and indeed in almost every corner of the world, complaints about the noise from wind turbines have been dismissed as something that can have no effect on those living close by.
Of course, the people who cannot hear them are the British Wind Energy Association, the Department for Trade and Industry, now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR, or perhaps due to global cooling it could soon be Brrr), a multitude of developers, councillors according to what political party they represent, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, MPs on the policy-making side of the House and other green uneducated souls who think you can test them by standing for a few minutes at an up-and-running site, and nothing to do with where a new application is being made.
I do know of one exception, and that is the managing director of Cornwall Light and Power, who stated in the WMN that “old turbines in Cornwall are noisy”, but that his modern ones are not.
That statement was just another load of spin – even faster than the wind turbines themselves.
Your recent correspondent Verity McCoy may wish to submit views on what should happen next, being that noise problems are dangerous.
Alan J Nunn
Realistic Energy Forum SW St Austell
19 February 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/02/19/noise-problems-are-dangerous/