5th December 2008
FROM CUMBRIAN GROUPS OPPOSING WINDFARMS,
IN SUPPORT OF CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL CROSS-PARTY MOTION (see below)
Dear Sir,
There are now 19 separate wind farm opposition groups in Cumbria and North Lancashire, each fighting their own corner. Two groups operate on a wider sub-regional basis, SALT covering the North of Cumbria and the West Coast, and FELLS covering the Eden Valley, Lakeland, and Lunesdale (the latter extending down to Lancaster, the source of the River Lune). SALT was formed about a year ago while FELLS has been active since 2000. Editors need to recognise that Cumbria is now at saturation point with wind farms, but the irrational planning system we have and Government's constant tampering with it to favour wind companies, is preventing the authorities from blocking the flood of application. It is notable that the Officers of both the County Council and most District Councils fought for the last 3-4 years to get the Regional Targets for renewable energy for Cumbria reduced but they were ignored at every stage by the unelected quango, the NWRA (now no longer in existence). We are all, therefore, heartened by the resolution passed by Cumbria County Council which is the subject of this press release. Used appropriately, it strengthens the arm of Officers, councillors and opposition groups alike in combating this menace to everything precious in the scenic North West.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Mike Hall (Vice-Chairman, FELLS)
PRESS RELEASE
From SALT and FELLS in association with 17 local wind farm opposition groups
The two leading umbrella groups opposing wind farm developments in Cumbria (SALT, The Strategic Alliance Against Lakeland Wind Turbines) and FELLS (Friends of Eden, Lakeland & Lunesdale Scenery) strongly support the cross-party motion passed on November 20th by Cumbria County Council. The motion reads;
“The County Council has grave concerns that the current targets for onshore wind-generated energy ride roughshod over the capacity of our landscapes and seascapes to satisfactorily accommodate further wind farms. Cumbria’s environment is a key asset for economic wellbeing. The County Council believes that a proliferation of wind farms will undermine efforts to address the county’s economic problems.
The County Council calls on the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to give a commitment to seek to ensure that Government will reduce its over reliance on onshore wind, reduce current wind-related targets and invest, as a matter of urgency, in other low carbon energy generation."
The motion was put forward by Cllr Norman Clarkson and seconded by Cllr Jim Buchanan and informs the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, that the Cumbrian landscape cannot absorb any more wind factories without them damaging its outstanding natural beauty and the County's economy. The motion (which has been sent to the Association of County Councils) also calls for other sustainable and renewable energy sources to be developed as an alternative to wind power.
SALT and FELLS are supported here by every local wind factory opposition group in the County, most of which are signatories to this Press Release. All agree that wind factories are part of our problem and not the solution. We are not on the cusp of an environmental utopia made possible by wind power, but rather in the grip of an expensive and inefficient form of electricity generation. The just published Report from the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs, ‘The Economics of Renewable Energy’ estimates that the total support for renewable generation from the taxpayer and consumers is now of the order of £1.4 billion per year, a sum that will build up to £6 billion a year by 2020 and more than £30 billion cumulatively. This is in addition to the capital costs of wind factory construction which will be at least £100 billion by then – all at a time of severe credit restriction.
Is this expenditure justified? Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at Oxford University, has calculated that each tonne of CO2 avoided through wind power costs consumers £510. Contrast this with the payment by industry in the latest auction in the European Emissions Trading Scheme – just £13 for permission to emit one tonne CO2. Contrast the £6 billion we will be paying per year under the wind farm subsidy scheme with the capital cost of a nuclear power station, just £2.4 billion. We could build two nuclear power stations each year from the stealth tax of £6 billion paid to wind ‘farmers’. The answer has to be a resounding NO, the expenditure is not justified.
If this cost isn't eye watering enough, what about next absurdity. Did you know the more wind factories are build the more conventional power stations also have to be build just to keep the lights on? In a response to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee inquiry into the Economics of Renewables, power generator Eon, warned the Government that during periods of peak winter demand less than one in ten wind turbines could be relied upon to produce electricity. This is because the wind often doesn't blow when it's cold - a simple observation that will cost us dearly. As a consequence the UK will have to build between 40 and 70 new conventional gas, or coal fired power stations to back-up the Government's proposal to build a further 7,000 wind turbines by 2020.
So if you thought wind turbines would close conventional thermal power stations or halt the development of a new generation of nuclear power stations then you're in for a real shock.
Not only will the consumer continue to pay wind companies a massive subsidy, they will also have to pay, through taxes and the fines the EEC will levy if we don't meet our targets. They will also have to pay through rises in electricity bills to upgrade the National Grid and for the extra conventional thermal plant to keep the lights on when the wind doesn't blow. What a staggering waste of resources.
Cumbria is at a crossroads. If we are not careful we will destroy the very thing we wish to preserve by undermining Cumbria’s attraction as a holiday destination. with a headlong rush into a flawed technology which will cause serious landscape and visual harm, produce a small amount of intermittent electricity, save very little CO2, and cost the UK tax-payer billions of pounds in tax rises and unnecessary subsidy.
Andrew Carter (Chairman, SALT) – North Cumbria
Mike Hall (Vice-Chairman, FELLS) – South Cumbria and North Lancashire
In association with 17 local opposition groups;
ABlot (Against Barkin Lot Developments) – Chairman, Stephen Hinchliffe, Middleshaw Hall, Old Hutton
Arlecdon Wind farm action group (Contact, Jon Downie)
BWFOG (Berrier Hill Windfarm Opposition Group) – Secretary, Jean Pearson.
Countryside First – Secretary, Michael Dugdale – High Biggins, Nr Kirkby Lonsdale
COLT (Community Opposed to Lamonby Turbines) – Chair, Ruth Walsh,
COST – (Community Opposed to Shap Turbines) – Secretary, Georgina Perkins, Shap
Cumwhinton Windfarm Opposition Group – Chair, Alison Stamper, Cumwhinton
MAIWAG (Marton, Askam & Ireleth Windfarm Action Group) – Chairman, David Brierley, Barrow
NWWAG (NoWhinashWindfarm Action Group) – Chairman, Kyle Blue, Orton
Grise Windfarm Opposition Group – Contact, David Briggs
STOP (Stop Turbines on Peninsula) – Chairman, Malcolm Leadbetter, Beckside, Cartmel
ST:OP (Stop Turbines: Oppose Planning) – Chairman, Rob McQuarrie, Gatebeck
SOS (Save our Stainmore) – Chair, Linda Webster, Stainmore)
Silloth Opposition Group – Chairman, David Montgomerie
STILE (Stop Turbines in Lunesdales Environment) - Chairman, Brian Acott, Arkholme, Lancs.
TAAG (Tallentire Area Action Group) – Chair, Margaret Ohare, Tallentire
WAG (Westnewton Action Group) - Dr K M A Singer, Westnewton
Below is the full text of the speech made by Norman Clarkson on November 20th which was supported by a large majority of County Councillors and had all Party support
Speech by Norman Clarkson on November 20th 2008 to Cumbria County Council
Chairman,
1. This sceptered isle, this precious stone set in a silver sea, which generations have protected against the avarice of commerce and the capriciousness of government is being disfigured and scarred through the obscene bribery to erect wind turbines on every hill and every mountain-side and every vacant plot of wind-swept Cumbrian countryside.
2. These wind farm schemes, by virtue of their size, scale and extent adversely affect both the historic landscape and the seascape patterns of Cumbria and the Solway by introducing intrusive, standardised industrial structures where none has ever existed. The dark Satanic mills may have been the scourge of 19th century Britain; but, in the 21st century, it will soon prove impossible to walk upon England’s mountains green without bumping into a wind turbine.
3. Numerous studies have called into question further wind farm development:
a. A recent study commissioned by 4NW, the Northwest’s Regional Leaders’ Forum, confirmed that meeting current regional targets for wind-farms would result in significant changes to landscape character with many areas being defined by those wind farms.
b. A study published by the Centre for Policy Studies has dismissed wind power as unreliable and expensive, and said Government plans for a 20-fold increase in power production were over-ambitious and impractical. There are now 151 UK anti wind-farm action groups in the UK which have been formed as a result of wind-farm developments planned for local countryside areas.
c. Even OFGEM is now calling for an end to the subsidy system, stating it is “the most costly and inefficient form of lowering CO2 emissions yet devised”. A near £1billion hidden subsidy today across the UK is eventually expected to rise to a cumulative £32billion by 2020.
4. I believe, the government should be spending the £32billion of subsidies it will afford to the wind turbine industry in developing alternative forms of energy
a. For example: Just one nuclear plant, Sizewell B, produces more than twice as much electricity as ALL the collective output of the 2120 wind turbines currently operating in Britain. And it does so reliably, without the need to keep backup generation ticking over.
5. The national policy to expand wind-farms will have severe consequences for Cumbria and will devastate some of Cumbria’s finest landscapes. I believe this national policy is misguided, out of date and is certainly not democratic for it does not take into account the wishes of local people.
6. There is no doubt that wind energy development will have an effect, and an adverse effect, on a range of environmental, social and economic issues in Cumbria. Cumbria’s economy is already fragile and we cannot afford for it be diminished even further.
7. Cumbria is now the fifth poorest county or region in the whole of the EU. I fail to see how the development of a proposed further 395 wind farms will aid Cumbria’s economy in the long run. Yes, I said 395 more wind farms in or off Cumbria… that is the number currently being considered.
8. So, I call on the government to reduce its obsession with wind farms.
9. The government’s and the EU’s climate change policy demands much more wind-generated electricity. Members will be surprised and perhaps even horrified how much this is already affecting, or likely to affect, Cumbria:
a. 92 wind turbines are already operational
b. A further 13 wind farms are being planned.
c. 46 sites are being considered and
d. 70 more sites are being scoped...
e. And a total of a further 266 wind turbines off-shore.
10. In other words, if all of these came to fruition, we would have five times as many wind farms in or off Cumbria as we currently have.
11. Ministers argue that wind energy is, and I quote, “the most commercially viable renewable technology”. Simply not true. Wind turbines are heavily subsidised through a complicated system of Renewable Obligation Certificates. £32 billion of subsidy is not cheap, I suggest.
12. Energy experts have warned that the "Renewable Obligation" subsidy system is, and I quote, "hugely flawed" and places an unfair burden on families at a time when household bills are soaring. Last year even the energy watchdog, Ofgem, called for the Renewables Obligation to be scrapped.
13. Every time there is a new turbine development proposed, local people attend public meetings to oppose the despoliation of their part of the country. Councillors are inhibited by advice that, because it is government policy, they are to ignore the wishes of the electorate and to approve applications with which they disagree. The correspondence columns in local newspapers are filled with letters crying out for this rapid industrialisation to stop.
14. Members of Council,
a. I suggest to you that we are not only the keepers of Cumbria’s public purse; we are – along with seven other local authorities – one of the prime keepers of Cumbria’s unique landscape. We also have, as one of our prime objectives, the resuscitation and regeneration of Cumbria’s economy.
b. It is my view that the further development of wind farms in Cumbria:
i. Will do much to damage the combined visual and landscape benefits which we and 19 million visitors each year enjoy,
ii. will damage our economy even further,
iii. will do little for wealth creation except for the developers who will build, pack up, go home, and pocket their profits
iv. and Cumbria will be left with the dreadful consequences;
All of these severe disadvantages significantly outweigh any benefits associated with further wind farm energy production in Cumbria.
15. I hope you share my sentiments, and will join with me in supporting the motion before you. Thank you.