A North Dorset Planning Case Officer, one James Lytton-Travers, has recommended that the application to build four 120-metre wind turbines at Silton, be approved.
The North Dorset Planning Committee meeting will be on March 1st at the RiversMeet leisure centre, Gillingham. Obviously they are expecting a full turn out.
In his report, Mr Lytton-Travers acknowledges that the turbines will have an adverse effect on the landscape, but says this is outweighed by the benefits these structures will bring.
In particular, “The potential to contribute significantly to renewable energy targets and to reduce CO2 emissions and climate change”.
Potential be dammed – what about actual?
If the wind doesn’t blow enough, the whole thing will be an expensive and unsightly white elephant, subsidsed by you and me. Last year, according to the Department of the Environment, wind turbines produced only a meagre 26 per cent of their potential output, and calculations here suggest the performance of the Silton Four will be around 22 per cent.
The builders, landowners and developers of this project will make a tidy sum, thanks to generous public (that’s you and me) subsidies.
Will our elected representatives see sense and vote this expensive, wasteful and quixotic project down?
Think. if it happens here, where next? Stourhead? Melbury? Bulbarrow? Eggardon?
We shall see.
More on
http://www.saveoursilton.org/
www.dorsetforyou.com
Tell us what you think -Ed
It seems the question has been answered. No sooner did we publish this post then a proposal was announced to build a wind farm comprising about 250 450ft tall turbines across a 76 square mile area of the English Channel off the coast of Dorset.
Enough to power some 820,000 homes. So we won’t need the miserable contribution from the Silton Four -ED