Source: BBC Radio 4: Any Answers
URL: N/A
Date: 17/11/2012
Event: "Is it that they've got the wrong kind of wind, or because they've got the right kind of people?"
Attribution: BBC Radio 4
People:
Anita Anand: Thank you very much. As I say, a huge response to that subject, but it is time to move on, because otherwise we won't be able to talk about the other thing that has interested you this afternoon - the future of wind power. The questioner wanted to know: is the enormous amount of money put into wind farms a cost-effective exercise? Myfanwy Alexander, from Powys. Hello, Myfanwy.
Myfanwy Alexander: Good afternoon.
Anita Anand: Good afternoon.
Myfanwy Alexander: I'd like to put a slightly different perspective on this. And I would like to pick up on the point that Shirley Williams was talking about - placing wind farms in what she called empty landscapes. Well, I'm a county councillor in Powys, which - where a lot of people live but where there are, at current last guess, about 800 turbines planned, some of which are 600 feet high. And I'd just like to make a point that I don't think has been brought up yet. We're a small local authority, and we're struggling, in hard times, to do our best to maintain and develop services for our residents. But we are faced with an enormous legal bill, because we have five large wind farms that went through our planning system and are now being taken to public inquiry. We're faced with a bill which we think will be in the region of £2.8 million, which is a huge amount for our authority.
Anita Anand: So, just to be clear, you've had five applications, you turned them down, they have gone to appeal, and this is costing you an enormous amount in legal bills. So -
Myfanwy Alexander: Exactly. Exactly. And we - we're in the situation where we, obviously, don't take a position on wind farms in general, but we deal with individual applications, and if we feel that they don't conform to our plans, and so on, we have no choice other than to reject them. We also are faced with the issue that if we were to assent to them, we would be taken to judicial review by our residents, who are, on the whole, greatly against. So, as a local authority, in hard times, I just wonder what people like David Willetts and Shirley Williams ask us to do. I mean, what - is it to be care for the elderly or is it to be education that we cut, in order to pay for these costs?
Anita Anand: Okay.
Myfanwy Alexander: Because we really are in a very difficult situation. We are - David and Goliath - fighting huge international companies. And this is not one or two turbines, as I say, it's over 800.
Anita Anand: It's a very interesting call. Thank you very much, Mifanwy. Lorna Slater has called us from Bardon Mill. Hello.
Lorna Slater: Hello.
Anita Anand: Hello, there.
Lorna Slater: I live in Northumberland and we too have a lot of wind farms dumped on us, probably the greatest number in England. And I'd like to know: are there any wind farms with big turbines, like the ones your previous speaker mentioned, on the Cotswolds, or the Chilterns, or the White Cliffs of Dover, or Hampstead Heath? And if not, why not? Is it that they've got the wrong kind of wind, or because they've got the right kind of people? People who are influential, and who matter. Whereas we are just inarticulate peasants, a long way from London, and you can do what you like with the land up here.
Anita Anand: Lorna, you sound so far from being an inarticulate peasant, I can't even begin to tell you, but thank you very much for your call. Ben Williams has called us from Brecon. Hello, Ben.
Ben Williams: Hello.
Anita Anand: Hello, there.
Ben Williams: Hello. Well, I'd like to agree with Shirley Williams. I quite like the look of wind turbines on hills.
Anita Anand: So, not "ugly as hell".
Ben Williams: Not ugly at all. It's nice to see something being built, and something working, seeing technology being used. And I don't find them ugly at all.
Anita Anand: Do you have any near you? I mean, I don't know, sort of, the geography of where you live.
Ben Williams: Brecon Beacons National Park. No, we don't. Not that near, not within sight of me, but I only have to drive half an hour, an hour, and I can see...
Anita Anand: Would it bother you if they were closer?
Ben Williams: No. No, it wouldn't. I'd like to build one on my own property, but -
Anita Anand: Okay, Ben.
Ben Williams: - I can't face the planning...
Anita Anand: Right, okay. Thank you very much for your call. Just try and squeeze in a couple more. John Allison's called us from Lincolnshire. Hello, John.
John Allison: Good afternoon. Well, I'll make it very brief, then. Because there's much more choices than just either wind turbines or nuclear power stations. The main thing against nuclear power stations - we mustn't have any more of them. Wind turbines, when they're worn out, can be taken down and recycled. Nuclear power stations create colossal amounts of nuclear waste, which stays poisonous and radioactive for 250,000 years. I think that really sums it up. We can't afford to have any more. They can't even find where Jesus Christ was born, 2,000 years ago, and they certainly wouldn't know where the radioactive dumps were, after all that time.
Anita Anand: Does it perplex you, then, that some very ardent green campaigners have actually changed their mind about nuclear power?
John Allison: Not particularly, no -
Anita Anand: George Monbiot being the one that springs to mind, at the moment.
John Allison: Well, possibly - [a woman's voice in the background says "John, we'll come to you next."]
Anita Anand: Right.
John Allison: I'm on now.
Anita Anand: You're on now, yes you are. [Laughing.]
John Allison: No, quite simply, it's a big subject which needs several hour-long programmes to discuss.
Anita Anand: Yes, it does.
John Allison: It really is too involved to answer in one simple question, on a programme. But that's the main point against nuclear power stations.
Anita Anand: Thank you very much for the call, and I'm sorry you had voices in your head - I think it was just a little crossed line coming from the studio - but thank you for being patient with us. Tony Hewitt, can we squeeze you in? I think we can.
Tony Hewitt: I hope so.
Anita Anand: From Harrogate. Hello, Tony.
Tony Hewitt: Hello.
Anita Anand: Hello, there. Yes.
Tony Hewitt: The first thing I'd like to say is that Shirley Williams was the first one to say anything sensible - she was talking about tidal power. I happen to come from North Devon and I know that the difference in tide levels is the second highest in the world, as I understand, where the Taw and the Torridge come in. Fifty years ago, I was working with a civil engineer, who was, in fact, interested in that sort of thing, and was trying to design things himself. What I'd like to say, though, is that I've been looking for many years for photovoltaic solar panels. I'm only an ordinary guy, I'm a pensioner, etc., I've saved a little bit of money. And I had these panels put on my roof - I've got a little terraced house.
Anita Anand: Hmm.
Tony Hewitt: I've had them exactly twelve months - twelve months on the 11th of this month, actually. So I've been through a complete winter. I've paid nothing for my electricity. I've actually been paid something over £1,000 during that year. And when they sent me the statement, I was £196 in profit, with them.
Anita Anand: Right. Okay, so -
Tony Hewitt: And I think that just proves it. But I can't see why there cannot be solar panels put on, because the Sun is there every day. It doesn't matter whether it's "dreich" - as the Scots say - and drizzly, and so on. I still generate power.
Anita Anand: Thank you very much, Tony, for that call. I'm sure, if you had called a little earlier, we would have had a few calls about storage of power, which I think David Willetts was talking about - the need to actually improve technology with that. Unfortunately, though, we don't have any more time - what a shame. But thank you very much for all your calls this week.