Friday, December 30, 2011

Wind turbines and racehorses

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=18756

Tony McCoy - BBC Sports Personality of the year last year - has halted plans to build a £2m racing stable until he is sure that a wind turbine won’t be erected close to where his horses would exercise. Here is a quote from the above article:

"McCoy has stressed to the council that 25 jobs and £2m of investment would be lost to the area should he pull out altogether."

You can also read this in The Telegraph online:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8982541/Jockey-Tony-McCoy-scraps-plans-for-racing-stable-over-fears-windfarm-will-spook-horses.html

The Lambourn area is one of our most famous centres of excellence for racehorse training. Where one turbine comes, more nearly always follow. How many more jobs could be at risk if this wind turbine is allowed, and where will it end? Long Run, current Gold Cup favourite, is trained in Nicky Henderson's Lambourn yard, and is said to be a "fizzy" character, which is why he wears ear plugs in his races. He is a typical example of the kind of horse who could be spooked by a wind turbine. Racehorses are not family pets and they support a nationwide industry, that not only provides jobs but also gives great pleasure to so many people.

There are racing stables all across Britain, and if Chris Huhne gets his way there will be more and more wind turbines close to them. After all, by their nature, racing stables are usually situated in open countryside, close to hills. Will it be Lambourn first, and Ditcheat next?

Studies have shown that for every Green job that is created, 2.2 or more are lost, and this is a perfect example.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Wind Turbine on fire



It is good to see that there is a video of the recent wind turbine fire in Scotland, on You Tube, filmed by producer and cameraman James Alcock.

Here is a link to another such fire, in the USA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkGXoE3RFZ8&feature=related

and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOfHxINzGeo&feature=fvwrel

And you can find many more examples on the internet, at sites such as EPAW

Monday, December 12, 2011

Wind turbine on fire



Thanks to Conservation for Upland Powys for finding this video of the turbine on fire in Scotland.

This Telegraph article - "1500 accidents and injuries on UK wind farms" - includes a quote from artist Angela Kelly, (featured on our website) Chairman of Country Guardian.

As mentioned on our page about the Fullabrook Down Wind Farm, many wind turbines are built far too close to roads, public footpaths and people's homes.

See more here:
http://www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com/fullabrook2011/fullabrook-mar20-23.html

Scroll down to the row of photographs below the heading March 23rd between Beara and Halsinger. for detailed information about the proximity of houses to these turbines at this wind farm. All the photographs taken on this and other pages of the Fullabrook turbines have been taken from public roads or footpaths, often very close to the turbines.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

"Small" wind turbines

This is a link to the CPRE's map of Devon, showing the problems facing the county:
http://www.cpredevon.org.uk/campaigns/

As well as the larger wind turbines that we know more about, such as Fullabrook, and other proposed wind farms such as Batsworthy Cross near Exmoor, there are so many applications for smaller, often single, turbines that it is hard for anyone to keep track of them.

"Small" does not mean small as the general public might think the word means. A 35 metre turbine is still gigantic and, if placed on a hill, will tower over the surrounding countryside. It may be noisy. It creates a precedent - where there is one, there may be more, and a ring of these "small" turbines soon becomes a larger wind farm.

One of the most particularly upsetting of recent applications is the one for a 35 metre turbine at Mounticombe Farm, near Chawleigh. This is such a pleasant, peaceful and unspoilt area of Mid Devon. The farmers who put in the application no doubt believe that they are being "Green," having read all the brochures produced by the salesman for Big Wind. They probably don't even realise that environmentalists all around the world are campaigning against wind turbines, or that many farmers who have had wind turbines put up on their land wish that they had not done so, but are not allowed to speak out because of confidentiality agreements.

You can read about the application at this link.

Here is a final thought. After you have looked at the CPRE map, which does not show all the applications that are flooding in, ponder the news today that Chris Huhne has plans for a further 32,000 wind turbines by 2050.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Wind turbine Noise in Canada


Wind Turbine Noise in Canada (Barbara Ashbee Interview - Part 1 of 2, this is a link to Part Two)

Note: In the previous posting, Dr Sarah Laurie refers to Barbara Ashbee.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Deeping St. Nicholas, Lincolnshire

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/8925467/Couple-settle-with-wind-farm-operators-over-unbearable-hum.html

"A couple have settled a High Court damages action against the owners and operators of a wind farm they say drove them from their farmhouse home with its "unbearable" noise."

A further quote from this article:

"Both sides said in a joint press release: ''The terms of that settlement are strictly confidential, and the parties will not be answering any questions about the terms of that agreement.''

The case was described as being of general importance because hundreds of other families say they have suffered similar disturbance from wind farms up and down the country."

Jane and Julian Davis have suffered great stress over a number of years and we hope that this settlement will give them a chance to rebuild their lives.

To understand more about cases such as theirs, it is worth reading Dr. Sarah Laurie's statement to the Scottish National Wind Farm Conference, at this link on EPAW:

Here is an excerpt from part of Dr. Laurie's statement, as shown in full on the EPAW website:

"There are now hundreds of case reports which I am personally aware of in Australia, the UK, Europe, Canada, the US, and New Zealand. I have interviewed over 90 people in Australia alone who have been seriously affected – some have left their homes, some their farms as well.

Some have signed confidentiality agreements, in exchange for being bought out, in order to regain their health. Trish Godfrey from Australia and Barb Ashbee from Canada, are two women in this situation, where their stories are now out in the public domain. I know them both, and they have suffered greatly, as have their families. There are many others, as the practice is global. It is my opinion that the ONLY reason for this practice of secrecy clauses has been to keep these health problems out of the public view, and hence out of the view of public health authorities and researchers, although the industry claims otherwise."

Please read the whole of the statement if you can.

You can go also to the Waubra Foundation website for more information:

http://www.waubrafoundation.com.au/