MPs demand changes to wind policy
The Sentinel, www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk 6 February 2012
Staffordshire MPs are calling for a drastic cut in the subsidies paid to onshore wind farms, and for communities to be given more power to stop the developments.
Karen Bradley, who represents Staffordshire Moorlands, Stafford’s Jeremy Lefroy, Stone’s Bill Cash, and Andrew Griffiths, whose Burton constituency covers the Uttoxeter area, are among 101 Conservative MPs to sign a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, raising concerns over the level of taxpayers’ money going into the sector.
The Tory backbenchers claim these farms, which are sited way from coastal areas, are “inefficient” and the energy they produce is “intermittent”.
They also fear that the drive to meet renewable energy targets is making it harder for local residents to defeat these developments through the planning system.
There are currently more than 3,000 onshore wind turbines in Britain, and the subsidies are worth £400 million-a-year.
In Mrs Bradley’s Moorlands constituency, a series of planning applications for turbines have been thrown out over the last 12 months.
Sites where turbines have recently been rejected include Higher Overton Farm, near Biddulph, Lask Edge, Marshes Hill at Brown Edge, and Red Earth Farm in Rudyard.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/02/06/mps-demand-changes-to-wind-policy/