As a life long climber, rambler and lover of the wild remote hills and mountains of the British Isles, I am strongly against the development and proliferation of wind turbine farms in our beautiful countryside.

Make no mistake, I believe in the principle of renewable power and a green energy policy to combat global warming and climatic change. We live on an already crowded island and I accept that the government should seek alternative forms of generating power to those of polluting fossil fuels. However wind energy using land based turbines is certainly not one of them in my opinion.

Wind power, on first face, may seem a clean, appealing, non-polluting source (of energy), but it's output and capacity to deliver compared to other established sources is, in reality, very small when weighed against these monstrous 300 foot high structures towering in hugh numbers on the tops of some of our mountains and off our shores in Wales and elsewhere.

Furthermore, in other parts of the world where they have long been sited there have been considerable problems from unacceptable noise levels from turbine generators and gearboxes. Experience in the United States and other places have shown that birds of prey (like our very own red kites) soaring above mountain tops and upland hills have been killed when they have flown into the profusion of turbine blades on wind farms. They have also been the cause of interference with radio telecommunications and television transmissions in certain areas where they have been erected in large numbers near residential areas.

The indiscriminate siting of these giant wind farms anywhere in the countryside just because there is a farmer that will accept them (for the money), is nothing short of visual vandalism despoiling our natural scenic beauty and I for one whole-heartedly support the artist David Bellamy and his friends in their fight against siting wind farms in Wales.

Carl Ryan, July 2003

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