Time to halt the march of wind turbine white elephants

I AM writing to express my serious concern at the increasing proliferation of the appalling wind turbines which are steadily destroying so many of our beautiful landscapes. I feel that we are all victims of a confidence trick which is likely to make a very few people extremely wealthy while the rest of us have to pick up the bill.

Were it not for the massive subsidies these machines attract, I doubt we would ever see another one erected.

It is now common knowledge that the coldest weather comes with periods of high pressure – that is when the wind doesn’t blow.

How many times during last winter’s bitter cold spells did we see any movement from these monstrous white elephants?

When this occurs, the coal-fired power stations are brought into use and of course these all need to be kept fired up permanently.

In the 1980s and 1990s, we saw our coal mines being butchered because, we were told, our coal was too expensive. Surprise, surprise now that our mines are almost gone the price of imported coal has rocketed.

Most people are not aware that we burn as much coal now as we did 30 years ago – most of it imported at sky high prices.

Now the Government is about to impose yet another tax on the coal industry – a so called “green” carbon price floor. This means we will all have to pay even more for our power supplies. No one opposes the principle of a cleaner, greener environment but present policies aren’t helping they are simply taking a lot of money out of our pockets to squander on an inefficient generating system.

At the very time that green coal-burning generators are being developed, the government is saddling us with a huge and unnecessary financial burden. Would it not make sense to utilise our 300 years of coal reserves and use this time to develop the only truly consistent source of power – the tide?

This is totally reliable, we can tell now exactly what time the morning high tide will be at, say, Bridlington in 300 years time. We must all tell our elected representatives “no more windmills”.

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor, East Yorkshire.

IT was with glee that I read about the wind turbine disintegrating – thankfully without harm to anyone (Yorkshire Post, January 7). I also felt justifiable elation when those other turbines burst into flames a few months ago during high winds too.

Frankly I have no objection to wind turbines at all – if situated in the right place such as off-shore locations. However it appears that council planners will only be content when the whole of the Vale of York is one huge wind farm, losing us any chance of tourism revenue.

Let’s face it, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that wind turbines are not all they are cracked up to be, with their failings becoming obvious in the lack of energy they can actually produce – their inefficiency blatantly obvious for all to see if they can’t cope with strong wind, let alone no wind at all!