Alan bennet is a fossil? Its ok for people to complain about these windfarms ?Lets build a nuke power station instead? If we dont do something now,that is exactly what we will end up doing .Putting more nuke powered stations up?Surely these people can realise that we need sustainable power? Or is it a case of not in our back yard?I hate these people like Alan Bennett who back these lunatic protests,Hes ok he can live anywhere he wants all this is to people like him is a great little HOBBY. Im sorry for the residents who live there but these Wind turbines are just like we had years ago grinding corn and making the best out of nature.We used to have hundreds of windmills these are just modern versions.

I'm not sorry for them. They're just wadded Yorkshire whingers.

Ace - no problem then.....tell me where your back yard is and I'll get EON to knock up a bird-chopper clearly visible from your front window.
Unfortunately this Government havent worked out that they will have to start ordering more Nukes to supply us with guaranteed non-weather dependent power.
Passing the bird-choppers in Cumbria just off the M6 it is amazing how many times half or all of them are out of action and not spinning. Wind is a collossal waste of time - a decent barrage tidal system - say across the Severn estuary would produce far more guaranteed power !

The reason that this area is moor land is because all the trees were cut down to be burned to fuel the industrial revolution. This is an industrial waste ground, all the carbon from the trees that were burnt started the whole problem off in the first place. Using the area to turn that around is a start. The only people with a problem are the ones who are worried about what the windmills will do to the price of there houses.

"A blot on the landscape" ???

Significantly cutting back on anything damaging to the enviroment, to the air that we breath, on the ozone depletion, on Nuclear fuels on fossil fuels......surely that more important !
Talk about ostrich's !

Well put Ace! I used to think Alan Bennett was the voice of the people and when I saw the headline I assumed he was on the other side of the arguement. I wonder how beautiful this landscape will look once Global Warming has really taken hold. I personally find nothing offensive at all in wind farms, if anything they can make the bleakest of landscapes look that bit more fascinating. It's not like they are great big lumbering things but rather slim, elegant and a testiment to what we can achieve when we put our minds to it.

J Polo. There is such a thing as the "tree line" where the average temperatures make it hostile for trees to grow. There is also a problem with the acidity in the peat. If you look at moorland, you will see where the trees finish as the land gets higher.

Maybe these turbines might bring much needed visitors to the mooreland? It could be the saviour of some of these moorelands? But i know one thing we need to try all the alternative types of power before we use nuclear power? Its a very small price to pay having a few windturbines.

Ricky G, i would gladly have a wind turbine in my back yard. I would rather look at that than than a dried out peat bog that when it starts to dry out, and it will with global worming and start to give off CO2.

All those who are opposed to sustainable power such as wind turbines should be made to pay three times as much for their electricity, and be refused the ability to use gas. We need to start protecting our planet whether or not it means we have to look out at a windmill or two. I have looked into having a turnbine in my back garden and solar panels on the roof and if the government brought them within my price range I would definately have one.

I'd rather have wind turbines that we can hand down to future generations than a load of liquid plutonium which has to be monitored and guarded by future generations who will get no energy out of it. It can be used to make a dirty bomb so I wonder if Alan Bennet or David Bellamy would be happy to store plutonium near to where they live. Wind turbines are harmless but some people don't like the way they look. I don't like the way a nuclear power station looks.

Many people are opposed to developments such as Saddleworth moor wind farm This is because wind farms fail to achieve their stated objective of mitigating climate change. Proponents of wind farms routinely tout the number of homes a wind farm could supply, or does supply. However this is meaningless information, for it does not relate to the ability of wind power to reduce fuel consumption in power stations. The inconvenient truth is that the combined output of our 1769 wind turbines is equivalent to one third of one per cent of the fuel consumed in UK power stations. This is absolutely irrelevant to reducing carbon emissions. Equivalent emission savings could be achieved through energy conservation at a fraction of the cost of wind power. No country has achieved meaningful reductions in carbon emissions through wind power. No fossil or nuclear power station has or will ever be closed as a result of wind power.

This ineffective technology is massively over-subsidised according to data from OFGEM and the National Audit Office - subsidies to wind power over the coming years are equivalent to the construction costs of 8000 schools or 1600 community hospitals. Many European countries have axed subsidies to wind power, redirecting funding to support hospitals and senior citizens. For example, in a recent emergency parliamentary session Spain has axed subsidies to wind power - Denmark and Holland likewise …quot; this is scarcely a good advertisement for wind farms. Perhaps most importantly, wind power is draining funding that could be used to develop more effective means of producing electricity from renewable sources. For this reason wind farms represent an obstacle to mitigating climate change, not a solution.

Those concerned about the proliferation of wind farms may wish to sign the following petition hosted by the Prime Minister on the 10 Downing Street website.

 eWe agree with the need to find methods to prevent climate change affecting our environment but this must be done with the full support of the public. No attempt can be successful if it destroys the very environment that we hope to save. We call for support for renewable energy projects that are NOT divisive in nature. We call for greater subsidies to small/personal micro-generation schemes such as solar heating. The major mechanism for reduction in CO2 and other greenhouse gasses must be responsible cooperation with the public, NOT imposition of unwanted areas of policy that threaten many households. On-shore wind farms may (when subsidised with public funds) provide large profits to multi-national corporations but their contribution to CO2 reduction is small when weighed against the savings that are possible IF the public feel that they are part of the solution and not having to fight against it!”

Please add your signature by 23rd February on:

petitions.pm.gov.uk/WindTurbines/

Well done fighting for the moors.
here in Llandudno there is a plan to site 200 + turbines only about 4-8 miles off the coast. They will destroy the stunning Llandudno Bay.... We have a local action group and are fighting to save our beautiful bay for future generations.....

Alan Bennett is not a fossil. He is an intelligent man who has been taken in by the high jacking of the climate issue by politicians and greedy developers. Wind turbineshave so far not caused the closure of a single conventional power station. Wind Turbines will not reduce CO2 ........ Doing something about air travel and aeroplane fuel will.... Why is this not happening????

The public has been misled into thinking wind farms are a benign force for good. This is because of the brilliant PR machine of the British Wind Energy Association. This is not a charity. It is a trade association which is making millions for its members and the large landowners of this country.

Consider the unpredictability of wind power and the problems it causes the grid. For example, the BWEA issued a press release on 21st December 2006.

" The renewables revolution firmly underway means that a record number of homes will be powered by the wind this Christmas: wind turbines in the UK generate sufficient electricity to meet the needs of over a million households - or to boil enough water for two billion cups of tea to wash down the Christmas meal "

A look at the Met office web site will show there was hardly any wind over the whole of the U.K. on Christmas Day. Of the seventy seven stations there were only five stations consistently over 11 knots ( about 5.5 metres per second ) Lerwick, Kirkwall, Stornaway Tiree and Isle of Portland. The highest wind speed recorded was Tiree at 22 knots (about 11 metres per second). Not one station reached the optimum generating speed of an average large turbine of 15 metres per second. How could a million homes have been supplied with not one area of Britain having the optimum amount of wind and the majority not even reaching the cut in speed of the average turbine, 3 metres per second? Two billion cups of cold tea?

. There were almost the same conditions last year on Christmas Day only slightly calmer, hence the claim it would be a record this year! How much fossil fuel was burned to back up this deficit? Congratulations to those who managed to balance the grid. Will they still manage next Christmas with yet more unpredictable wind power stations or will we join Europe in blackouts?

Janet Haworth, Llandudno.
Its ok when they scrap the windfarm idea?? Then after they build the nuke station in wales they will dump all the nuke waste out in the bay? Is this what you all want????????We need alternative fuels and methods of producing it without killing the planet off?At least these windfarms dont harm the planet.

This is what I mean about brilliant PR. We need baseload electricity which is available at all times. Wind power cannot provide this. It is not a question of replacing nuclear with wind power. Until we can store electricity effectively it is not possible. The final report on the Europe wide electricity blackout on November 4th shows us the danger of relying too much on wind power.

It seems the people who live in the urban jungle quite like windturbines.
Why not stick them in cities then!

Will people PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE stop using the term 'Wind Farms'! They are WIND TURBINE FACTORIES.

Of course wind turbines are at an early stage of development, but they will improve in efficiency and operating range with research and investment. Why try and write them off when they are in an early stage of development. If the wind is not blowing in one place then it is in another part of the network, you make up the difference on still days with gas powered stations and when it's windy you save gas. We need to invest in predicting the power that will come from the wind on any particular day from the weather forecast. There remains much to be done and you can't expect miracles overnight. The objections to wind power are mostly objections about the way they look in the landscape which is pathetic and selfish and anyway I don't think Douneray or Sellafield would win a beauty contest. The beach at Llandudno is totally radioactive and so is the north and west coast of Scotland, it will be for thousands of years, children can't dig in the sand or walk barefoot without risking cancer but who complains about it. I would also like to see more turbines in cities on tall buildings, the more the better, they need to be everywhere. We also need to drive less, fly less, insulate better etc etc. A wind turbine is about as harmless as you can get, it doesn't even cause radiowaves like a mobile phone antenna and it is one of many weapons we must try out to fight global warming and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels which will run out inevitably.