Like a circle in a spiral
Entry posted by GhostOfClayton
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I just can't understand why wind turbines cause such controversy. OfClayton Towers is located right on the southern edge of the sleepy little village of Aquis-of-the-Romans. It's next to a field, on an escarpment top facing over the Vale of York (an almost totally flat area stretching to the west as far as the eye can see), so although it�s unlikely to be the site of wind turbines, it wouldn�t be completely out of the question.
If I were to make a list of all the things I wouldn't want placed in that field, a relatively benign structure like a wind turbine would be quite a long way down it. So why is it that, at the first sight of a man with a trundle-wheel, whole villages rise up as one, and act as if the local council have just granted planning permission for the slaughter of their first born?
We know that village folk don't like change. Threaten any kind of change to a rural community, and their default position will be to oppose it. Cut the number of buses, and there'll be a meeting in the village hall about Edna from Fosdyke Lane who can no longer get her corns done. The fact that only seven people used the bus in the past two years, and that two of those have now passed away, will be irrelevant. Threaten to increase the number of buses, and there will be a letter-writing campaign about the increase in pollution, the clogging up of the narrow lanes with all these buses, and the perceived additional burden on the Council Tax payer. We know they do this sort of thing, it's as much part of rural life as any other country pastime (incest, suicide, drunk driving, etc.).
But even considering the undeniable truth of the previous paragraph, the venom and ire that Parishioners reserve solely for the wind turbine seems wholly out of proportion with the impact these structures have. Are they a blot on the landscape? That is subjective in the extreme. Outside of any area where some might be placed, there seems to be a 50:50 split. Some people don't like the look of them, and some people find them a joy to behold.
Noise is another oft-cited objection. Now, I've walked through an 8-turbine wind farm, whilst all blades were turning at a reasonable pace. They do make a sound, and it can be described as a low frequency hum. It's a little like the hum you sometimes hear whilst walking past a small electricity pylon on a damp day, but not as loud � the track I was walking passed halfway between a small pylon and a turbine about 200m apart, and the loudest sound was from the pylon.
Statistics are often thrown into the mix � how wind turbines are not actually as efficient as stated, with usage numbers for existing wind turbines cited. Now here, there may be something to seriously think about. Wherever you find one set of statistics supporting one view point, you will find an equal and opposite set of statistics opposing that view, yet surely the scientists must all be agreed that we're better off with them? Or did the government just offer huge financial incentives for green energy, and some companies realise they could make money by putting up wind turbines, irrespective of the environmental gain? The Lex Parsimoniae would make the latter an absolute truth. But surely that�s more of a national policy issue, rather than a sound reason for a local planning objection.
My last theory is that they�re scared. I'm not really sure about what, but it may be all about house prices, which does seem to dominate the waking thoughts of many a Middle England Telegraph reader. However, I doubt anyone finding the right house would bother too much if there was a wind farm in the view. The right number of bedrooms, garages, garden square footage, off-road parking spaces, etc., and the presence in the village of a 'good school' would surely drive prices much more substantially. So I don�t know. I no doubt sounded confident and knowledgeable at the start of this rant, and you mistakenly thought I was going somewhere, driving towards a certain conclusion with which you could agree or argue. No, all I have found out in this process is that I am also a little scared. Not about having wind turbines near my house, but about what the alternative might be if no-one is prepared to accept and live with them.
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