WILTSHIRE Council, in voting for the separation distances between dwellings and wind turbines, sought to protect Wiltshire residents from their intrusive nature, but with a stroke of his pen the inspector has struck this protection from the Core Strategy.

This leaves residents with little protection from the developers profiting from the very substantial subsidies, which cost us all on our energy bills. Amplitude modulation, the highly intrusive loud beating, slapping or banging noise from wind turbines is a proven function of distance and I’m sure it was in the councillors’ minds to set some distance safeguards for this very reason. To cap it all ‘wind’ companies have already said that wind speed in Wiltshire and potential locations only provide marginal performance. Is this a case of subsidy with little or no output?

The UK uses in total 1.5 per cent of global energy, one-third is electricity of which wind’s target is some 20 per cent. That’s one-thousandth of world energy and less than half of that on shore.

Even claims that these tiny quantities replace fossil fuel alternatives are incredible. DECC (Energy and Climate Change Ministry) compares notional wind outputs only with coal-fired generation (gas is more efficient) and crucially ignores fossil fuel use caused by turbine manufacture, installation and operation, plus substantial mounting grid back-up inefficiencies.

These factors eliminate most, probably all, alleged ‘benefits’, so the UK’s regime cannot influence climate. Without wind disruption, modern power stations, particularly gas, provide fossil fuel and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions economically (Civitas, Ruth Lea, Electricity Costs). Conventional grid generation must duplicate virtually all random wind input, transfer from wind to fossil fuel generation would be relatively simple but the long term commitments to the EU and subsidy exploiters are the problem.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has announced a 12 month extension to the practice of planning ministers recovering appeals involving renewable energy schemes to check they are being handled inline with the Coalition’s latest guidance. Initially this was for a six-month period.

In a statement to Parliament he said it was “important that local communities continue to have confidence in the appeals process and that the environmental balance expected by the National Planning Policy Framework is being reflected in decisions on renewable energy developments”.

Richard Covington, Chairman West Ashton Parish Council, Bratton Road, West Ashton, Trowbridge