Beautiful landscapes tarnished by turbines
SIR – If Dean Ashton (Letters, November 17) wishes to live among wind turbines, he should move to Wales, where the Welsh Assembly has designated large expanses of some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes for unopposed development.
On the other hand, those people who have a fondness for the countryside of Wales as a place for holidays, walking and riding should hurry up and visit in order to take a last look.
Caroline Martin
New Radnor
SIR – During the Sixties and Seventies most of our towns and cities were scarred by appallingly designed buildings. Much of the damage is still affecting our built environment, and at the time the views of ordinary people and the damage to their quality of life were mostly ignored.
Now it seems people wish to visit the same devastation on our beautiful countryside. Wind turbines are just as much of an eyesore as those notorious tower blocks of the Sixties, which were once described in similarly glowing terms. They are also likely, by most calculations, to have a negligible effect on the temperature of the Earth in 30 years’ time.
Stephen Darnley
Pyrford, Surrey
SIR – To maintain our national grid within acceptable limits, two types of generating systems are required: one group continually producing power at maximum capacity, and the other flexible enough to adjust power outputs to balance our constantly changing demands on the grid.
As wind and solar cannot satisfy either of these essential requirements, they will always require full back-up from steam-driven generators. Brian Christley
Abergele, Conwy
SIR – Turbine technology is magnificent – and, if used primarily to generate electricity, it is more than welcome in my back yard.
However, the chief function of the turbines that carpet the countryside is to give landowners and companies subsidies of between two and five times the market value of any electricity they intermittently produce – all paid for by levies on electricity bills.
Philip Sullivan
Frolesworth, Leicestershire