John Southwell uses this low-energy farming as an illustration of his desire to move to greener farming – though that's not a phrase he uses.

They live on the edge of the pretty, up-market village of Sancton, where the parish council has just voted by 85 votes to 29 to oppose the Southwells' latest ecological venture, five 90-metre wind turbines. John Southwell is likely to put in the planning application to East Riding County Council before Christmas. The project would be built by Cornwall Light and Power, based on an earlier proposal they inherited from NPower.

CLP has promised an unquantified annual cash donation to the community, and says that the Sancton turbines will provide enough electricity for 5,700 homes.

Lord Manton, a neighbour and friend of the Southwells, confirmed this week that if they get permission then he will also apply to have turbines on his land.

He said he was against wind turbines in principle but added: "Once you have spoilt the countryside by putting five turbines up, then at £15,000 a time I'd take a couple. If I have three or four on land near my boundary I would apply for some because my views are ruined anyway". Lord Manton is also intending to install a small "personal" turbine on the estate, where he grows 100 acres of energy crops and runs the house mostly on non-fossil fuel.

Wind power is on the ascendancy, though its critics say it is inefficient, and popular only because of public subsidies. Nationally, there are planning applications for 3,189 turbines on 235 sites in the next five years, says the Renewable Energy Foundation. At present, there are 176 wind farms with 2,033 turbines on land and sea, giving enough power for 1.4 million houses. The REF report says that in 2006-07 some £217m was paid to the wind farm operators in a subsidy known as the Renewables Obligation Certificate. It is these ROCs that make wind farms profitable, using money loaded on to our energy bills.

In Yorkshire's East Riding, there are three operational sites (Loftsome Bridge, Saltend and Out Newton) with a total of 10 turbines. Permission has been granted for a 12-turbine wind farm at Lissett Airfield. Current applications are for 15 turbines at Aire and Calder, 10 at Sixpenny Wood, and three at Burton Pidsea. Awaiting final approval are a 16-turbine farm at Goole Fields and 14 turbines at Twin Rivers. Applications for Withernwick, Roos, Monkwith and Routh have been refused.

Wind farms rarely get a smooth passage. Acronyms arise: PACT, for Parishioners Against Chelker Turbines, are fighting a Yorkshire Water plan to install two of the country's largest turbines in view of Ilkley's famous Moor.

Now we have SWAT, aka Sancton Windfarm Action Team, set up by Stuart Hepworth, who moved to the village two years ago from Holmfirth. He claims the Sancton wind farm will devalue property prices. A village meeting last week
was addressed by two representatives of CLP when, says Mr Hepworth, one of them said the wind farm installation would affect property prices for five years.

"I do not believe that any wind turbine developer has ever admitted to such a devaluation publicly", said Mr Hepworth. "This is of utmost importance not only to our fight but for all villages faced with turbines being placed near them".

Sharan Harvey-Leach, the parish council chairman and a solicitor versed in property transactions, confirms that in answer to a question from the audience, CLP's Tristan Mackie did say the wind farm would have "a blight" on property prices for five years.

A report published last month from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors states that there is little evidence to support claims of devaluation. But the report added that there was evidence that noise and flicker from the blades could "blight" certain properties.

Mr Hepworth accepts that the wind farm would be seen by only 10 to 15 of the 131 houses in Sancton.

Stuart Hepworth is now going ahead with plans for an action committee. He also intends to question his council tax bill if his property is devalued.

Estate agents contacted by the Yorkshire Post tended to follow the RICS line. Steven Goforth, of Stanifords, Beverley, with a four-bed detached house in Sancton on the books at £445,000, said: "I don't see it really having a detrimental affect (on house prices),"adding, "if you had a property that was overlooked (by the turbines) it might affect it because someone would not buy it regardless of the price."

A report published this week by researchers at Newcastle University on arable land around two
wind farms in the East Anglian fens found the turbines had no effect on
the distribution of seed-eating birds, crows, game birds and skylarks.

The conclusion is that the future installation of wind turbines is "unlikely to have detrimental effects on farmland birds", said Dr Mark Whittingham.

Cornwall Light and Power told the Yorkshire Post: "We carry out rigorous wildlife surveys as part of the environmental impact assessment that will form part of the planning application."

John Southwell says he appreciates "everyone has their own thoughts" on such things, but thinks the turbines are better than looking at the Drax and Eggborough coal-fired
power stations, which
can be seen steaming on
the horizon.