Wind Power Worries

Date published: 14/11/2005

Rochdale Euro-MP Chris Davies has called for a change in his party's energy policy to take account of concerns about the loss of landscape value caused by wind farm construction.

The open vistas of Britain's hills and moorland could be doomed to disappear if schemes currently in the pipeline prove to be the precursor of many hundreds to come, the MEP warns in an article in his party newspaper Liberal Democrat News.

Sites that are now the subject of heated debate have not been chosen on the basis of an objective assessment of landscape value, he claims. Instead, commercial considerations have ruled with corporate landowners seeing a chance to make large sums of money.

Mr Davies's comments will be controversial because he is the Liberal Democrat spokesman on climate change in the European Parliament and is involved in negotiating all EU laws to tackle global warming.

The Greenfield resident says that there are places in the South Pennines where construction of hundreds of wind generators could take place without arousing huge opposition. He argues that it would be hard to criticise the intrusion of wind farms along the M62 corridor where the landscape is already cut through by a six lane motorway.

He writes: ""Losing a precious landscape should be a last option not the first. To halt the menace of global warming this is a sacrifice I would be prepared to make but it is not an acceptable price to pay while nothing is being done to curb the emissions from monstrous 4WD fashion accessories being driven by London yuppies, while the government pays mere lip service to the concept of energy saving, and while a host of barriers still stand in the way of developing the full range of renewable options."

TEXT OF ARTICLE

BEWARE THE RASH ASSAULT
Chris Davies MEP

These words may be regarded by some as heresy, especially as they come from the Liberal Democrat MEP who plays a part in negotiating all EU legislation on climate change, but I am not prepared to support every wind farm scheme that comes along. I doubt that I am a lone voice in the party.

My home in Saddleworth is where Greater Manchester meets the hills. The open moors are a European Special Area of Conservation. They are wild and beautiful - and tiny. England's Pennine spine is narrow here; little more than five miles of open moorland separates the huge urban areas of east and west.

I'm privileged. I see the hills from my home. I'm easily accused of being a NIMBY. But 10 million people live within one hour's travel of these open spaces and many see them as an escape and a reminder of the world outside the city. Quite a few have doubts about proposals that will see many, many more wind farms built on these hills. There are places in the South Pennines where construction of hundreds of wind generators could take place without arousing huge opposition. Take the M62 corridor, for example; it would be hard to criticise the intrusion of wind farms on a landscape already cut through by a six lane motorway. But the sites that are now the subject of heated debate have not been chosen on the basis of an objective assessment of landscape value. Commercial considerations rule; the corporate landowners see a chance to make money big time. This is not the way in which renewable energy policy should be dictated.

To some my concerns will amount to nothing more than a matter of taste. Some people like the look of the occasional wind farm and some do not. Personally I find wind generators attractive, and close up even dramatic, but I will be sorry if wind farms grow in such numbers as to obscure the landscape of our wild places and I am conscious that the schemes in the pipeline could be the precursor of many hundreds to come. In 2003 Germany erected more wind generators than Britain had done in the past 25 years combined - it shows the scale of what lies ahead. There is a danger that the open vistas of our hills and moorland are doomed to disappear.

To halt the menace of global warming this is a sacrifice I would be prepared to make but it is not an acceptable price to pay while nothing is being done to curb the emissions from monstrous 4WD fashion accessories being driven by London yuppies, while the government pays mere lip service to the concept of energy saving, and while a host of barriers still stand in the way of developing the full range of renewable options. Losing a precious landscape should be a last option not the first. Party policy should reflect the need for prioritisation in our approach.

There's a place for wind power and I'm looking forward to seeing it. When next our party conference returns to Blackpool I hope the weather permits delegates to stroll along the promenade and look out to sea. There on the horizon should be scores and scores of wind generators, feeding us with clean and renewable energy.

And as dusk falls, they will all be illuminated!