Green diamonds and red diamonds

I went to the FCC wind turbine consultation in the middle school, yesterday. I know I will disappoint some blog and M&S readers when I declare that I have no personal or aesthetic objections to wind turbines. But hopefully readers will hang in for the 'howevers'. 

I will not be able to see the turbs from where I live but they would be very obvious down Woodend Road when I cycle there. I also walk around Marston Thrift and periodically in the Peak District. So I agree there is a visual impact. At the first display I went to at Holywell there was a map with a 10 km radius round Brogborough and lots of green and red diamonds.

Green meant you couldn't see the turbs from this point and red that you could. There were two  greens in Court Road/Wood End Road and one red. Needless to say the red was the open road. I asked the FCC assistant why there were no diamonds all along the Spinney and eastern side of the High Street and Bedford Roads. His reply was, "Central Beds told us we didn't have to put those in. But we're were going to." 

Nice one. I bet they will all be red. 

I am concerned that in all consultation  sessions as much information as possible is available. The green dots on the map around the village suggest a certain invisibility. I also wondered what CBC thought it was doing advising FCC about the limited display points.

FCC makes a big point about commitment to renewables. Of course under current power generation regulation there is always a business case for this kind of installation  and if FCC could put a turbine on top of the church tower it would. I am sure.

What bothers me the most is the way the benefits of wind generation  are shared out. Everyone in the planet benefits from lower CO2 emissions and the landowner who hosts the farm gets a big wad of money. Personally I think everyone living within, say, 10 km should get a significant discount on their electricity charges. Then, at least there would be some pros and cons to work out. Land based turbines are cheaper than at sea and the connectivity is much more efficient. So the whole community should see the benefit.

The brickyards of the 20th century where polluting and unattractive but they provided thousands of secure jobs and funded homes, health and recreational facilities. A lot of modern technology offers none of these human spin-offs.

Almost lastly, we could be doing a lot more on making homes energy efficient including PV panels on all new houses with everything built to the highest environmental standards. This and past governments have been sweet talked by developers into not making them mandatory.

Definitely lastly,  we are running out of energy. Would the Marston Valers be happy to host a nuclear power station or be happy to reply on Mr Putin's gas supplies in the 2020s? One to think about. In the meantime we will try to put this application through the full rigours of an open planning examination. 

Whatever my own views Parish Matters will willingly host views  opposing the plans. That relies on them being non-abusive. At present I don't moderate comments which can be put up anonymously. But that would have to change if  unpleasant language is used.