Wind farms issue is politically expedient

I REFER to the proposal by Simon Clarke MP to lift the ban on the building of onshore wind turbines.

In a recent article, he refers to onshore wind as “popular, cheap and an economic no-brainer”. He clearly knows little about the subject, but seemingly believes it would be politically expedient with metropolitan voters.

It has also been reported that Mr Clarke’s proposal has growing support amongst his Conservative colleagues, including MPs representing London’s commuter belt, such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. How many wind farms are likely to be built in Uxbridge or Camberley?

The 2015 Conservative Government moratorium banning further onshore wind was politically expedient. They knew how deeply unpopular more wind turbines would be amongst their rural voters. No changes were made to this in the Conservative 2019 electoral manifesto, on which the current Government was elected.

So how politically expedient would it be now, Mr Clarke, to further antagonise your traditional rural voter base, when your party is already some 20 points behind in the opinion polls, by lifting the ban?

Penny Mills Director, Devon branch, Campaign to Protect Rural England