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Dorset MPs back campaign for wind farm rethink
Credit: By Steven Smith, Daily Echo, www.bournemouthecho.co.uk 7 February 2012 ~~
Dorset MPs have backed a campaign by their colleagues asking the Government to reconsider its support for wind farms.
More than 100 Conservative backbenchers are rebelling against Downing Street’s backing of onshore turbines, along with a handful of Lib Dem and Labour members.
Dorset MPs Robert Syms, Bob Walter, Chris Chope and Richard Drax have all signed the letter.
Bournemouth MPs Conor Burns and Tobias Ellwood are unable to do so, as they hold positions as Parliamentary Private Secretaries.
But Mr Burns said he was “entirely in accord” with the letter and would be writing to the Prime Minister and Chief Whip separately.
It comes amid plans for an off-shore wind farm 10 miles from the Dorset coast.
Mr Burns said: “The principles apply equally to on or off-shore.
“There are really serious questions as to whether they’re cost-effective. Where, if we think we should have them, should they go?
“It’s one thing to say let’s have them in very remote parts where no-one sees them, but it’s a different proposition altogether to have turbines 100ft tall with red flashing lights on top, 10 miles off the country’s premier seaside resort.”
He added that there was an opportunity to look again at the issue following Chris Huhne’s resignation as energy secretary.
The letter said it was “unwise to make consumers pay, through taxpayer subsidy, for inefficient and intermittent energy production that typifies on-shore wind turbines”.
It called on the Government “to dramatically cut the subsidy for on-shore wind and spread the savings made between other types of reliable renewable energy production and energy efficient measures”.
Lib Dem MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, Annette Brooke, has not signed the letter.
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