How ridiculous!

I am not being pedantic but I would like to enquire to the age of the 'opposing group'. As really, as a youth, I believe it should be up to the younger generation, not the older generation of Baumber. I also, as a resident of nearby, would love to have a wind farm close, as something to be proud of.

I, being at the age of 15, believe it should be up to my generation as we are the ones who will be the occupants of the World next. You have happily been eating away at fossil fuels and non renewable fuels for a generation without a word or a whisper, leaving nothing but a mess for us. So if you think you can take the high ground on such an argument then you are very much mistaken.

Now I am not one for the global warming theory but what I do know and believe in, is the fact that fossil fuels are soon to run out and what will we do then? ‘We’ being me and my generation, your children.

Now I know Lincolnshire seems to be a county that doesn’t accept change, e.g. how Sir Peter Tapsell has been in office enough time to see wind farms as an alien idea that should not be accepted (maybe going back two generations now). But we can no longer be the 'forgotten county'. We need to move with the times or be left to rot. Now I'm sorry, as this means losing some precious country side! As we’re obviously low on the countryside in Lincolnshire?

Of course I admit there are disadvantages, or rather one disadvantage but this is a minor insignificance in comparison to the advantages. So I would like you to consider which you prefer, a majestic wind farm or a squatting nuclear power station as it is going to be one or the other. I personally would love to see your reaction to that prospect? So I ask of all who oppose it, stop being so selfish and think of your children.

In the words of your precious conservatives ‘Time For Change’!

Joe

Firstly thank you for your contribution and comments.

No matter how you may imagine those of us in BWAG think, appear or vote you may be surprised to learn that this plan has been opposed by many and varied people of all ages from our local area.

If you want to read the BWAG literature you will see that we are not against wind energy but we are against the siting of industrial structures (at 125m they are over 20 metres taller than the Wolds themselves) in an extremely marginal site that does not even have enough space to protect residents from shadow flicker, noise, amplitude modulation or enough separation to place turbines even the barest minimum distance away from road users, horse riders, cyclists and walkers to prevent potential harm if the worst should happen. For example did you know that a number of turbines are between 63 and 68 metres from private land - not even topple over distance. Whatever else you may think this is surely a minimum that you would agree with, isn't it? And before you say - that won't happen - well sadly it already has and it does more often than you might think.

The barest minimum for turbines on land should be far enough away to prevent injury from structural failure with additional distance added for noise etc. This site does not even give local people that much protection. I won't start on noise, flicker etc. beacuse you are obviously intelligent and you will be aware of significant issues elsewhere.

It is very easy to simply label all of those against these plans as NIMBYs. However protecting this area, this vale and the whole area along the western edge of the Wolds AONB is a passionate aim of many and something we feel is worth figting for. Lincolnshire already plays a big role in wind power production (contrary to your coments) with turbines right down the east of the county stretching from Scunthorpe to Spalding. The remaining totally unspoilt area between the Wolds and the Cathedral is an example of an increasingly rare place in the East Midlands and abosultely worth fighting for. Such an overwhelming rejection of these plans (a democratic decision already made by informed planners at ELDC) is not at all at odds with national wind energy targets - Lincolnshire is already fully engaged in this process.

I am not going to comment fully on the nuclear power station statement you make only to say that a land carpeted with industrial wind turbines will not close a single one, like it or not that is the reality. So the prospect of a nuclear power station in say Horncastle is an urealistic one and a weak argument based on........ what?

If you really want to invest our depleted taxes on sporadicly beneficial and inefficient turbines then please write a letter to your MP or to ELDC or whoever, put one on your home if you think that would help - better still add some more lagging to the loft of your home and write a letter to Government demanding all the lights in empty offices are turned off each night - now that would make sense. Maybe even carry on building turbines off-shore - I for one have no issues with that as long as all the substations and cables linking them to the national grid are underground.

These issues are a very complex and those objecting are on the whole not a bunch of old farts who are stuck in the last century. It is a matter of protecting families, many with children, from the reality of a minimum of 25 years of increasingly prevalent adverse only now being reported by people near existing wind farms. Such negative effects on the lives of those without any ability to reverse or even in our case prevent such massive construction cannot be tollerated, so other than forming action groups like BWAG and opening themselves up to ridicule what can they do - they have not chosen to be put in this situation. Many have simply spoken up against these badly thought out plans in significant numbers, many like you are not even against wind energy as an additional method of supply but such enormous moving structures imposed in a rural setting cannot be ignored and when the impacts are felt even inside your home, your last refuge then that is unacceptable. Where they are sited today remains critical and will do so increasingly in the future. The lementable lack of consultation or any positives for the local people has naturally offended and genuinely worried many. As only the land owner and Enertrag stand to benefit with large sums of money at the expense of everyone else how is that fair or a good way to conduct buisness (let alone do right by these communities).

Did you write a letter in favour when you had the chance? If not then please come along and attend the public enquiry in Minting in October. Listen to the viewpoints from both sides and get a little more information ahead of a decision by the inspector.

I am neither old, nor a Tory but I have 2 young kids who also deserve to grow up aware of the environment and their responsibiities for it free from the imposed industrilaisation of their home. They have a right not to have this inescapable industrialisation inflicted upon them when there are better and more efficient places put them.

Baumber is a marginal, opportunist location a long way from the grid and has been exposed as such.

Lastly please do not think of us as backward looking, NIMBY or even old. We have many and varied reasons to oppose these plans that will badly affect individuals and communities alike and that could see huge distruption and degradation forced upon them, some live just 700m away (I would guess this is much closer than you).

Thank you for your comments.

Regards

BWAG Webmaster.