Wind turbine noise still audible
Sussex Express | 29 March 2013 | www.sussexexpress.co.uk
I assume that your article ‘Wind turbine hailed as beacon for the future’ (March 15) was based upon a Glyndebourne press release which in turn was intended to counter a highly critical article in Private Eye on February 22: ‘Music & Musicians – yet more sour notes from the South Downs’ by their opera buff ‘Lunchtime O’Boulez’.
The green spin within Glyndebourne’s claims deftly avoids discussing the pitiful electrical output. Based upon 2012 we now know that they over-stated actual turbine output by a massive 60 per cent when gaining approval to build in our national park. They also dodge the issue of the huge financial returns to Glyndebourne – over 17 per cent, tax free and guaranteed for 20 years – via subsidies paid for by pensioners and other consumers (Tony Parker, letters, January 18).
Mr Christie, Glyndebourne’s chief executive, boasts of an average wind speed of 5.68 metres per second. This equates to 12.7 miles per hour (mph). Mr Christie failed to explain that electrical output for the E44 turbine is negligible below 10 mph!
On the noise issue, Ringmer LibDem District Councillor, Professor Emeritus Peter Gardiner, declares himself “proud to be associated with [the] turbine [and] … Noise has not been proved to be a public nuisance”.
By contrast, your readers will recall that the same councillor assured us, both at the Lewes District planning meeting and via this column, on the basis of his academic credentials, that the turbine would not be heard in our village.
On January 16, 2012, Mr Gardiner himself admitted hearing turbine noise at a distance of 1,000 metres! Indeed he emailed senior Lewes planning officers stating: “I am extremely disappointed ….. especially with all the assurances I was given and that I passed on to Ringmer residents.”
The Glyndebourne – LibDem coalition is still going strong. Despite the consistent ‘whump-whump’ noise reports from residents in at least three separate locations within Ringmer, the FAQ section of the Glyndebourne website continues to assert that ‘It will not be possible to hear the turbine from Ringmer’ – Source: http://glyndebourne.com/wind-turbine-faqs. I rest my case.
Reg Keeping
Ringmer
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/03/29/wind-turbine-noise-still-audible/