Wind Farm: Keep Cumbria beautiful

2:53pm Friday 17th October 2003

Sir, Re; the proposed Whinash Wind Farm, for ten years I was the Travel Editor of Harpers & Queen, and have therefore travelled to 92 countries, scouring the world for beautiful destinations.

Despite all this travelling to so many famous or remote places, it is my belief that the Cumbrian countryside is as beautiful as anywhere in the world.

It may not provide the altitudes of the Himalayas, or the green savagery of the Amazon jungle, but it is an extraordinary and wonderful landscape that has been organically moulded over the centuries - in perfect equilibrium between the hand of man and that of nature.

It is often pointed out that the threatened wind-turbines are not intrinsically ugly. I agree. In certain places they can look fine, even dramatic. Nevertheless, because the gigantic turbines are so huge (each of the Whinash turbines will be taller than St. Paul’s Cathedral) and because they are always built on the tops of hills that dominate a vast area, they utterly destroy the subtle magic that characterises our understated landscape.

The proposed wind-farm would be an act of vandalism, equivalent to painting a moustache on to the Mona Lisa.

Having been in the travel business, I can also warn of long-term damage to tourism, which is hugely important to Britain, and most especially to Cumbria. Tourism is the largest business in the world, and it is often the most crucial source of revenue for many rural areas.

Nevertheless, as a travel writer I have learned that visitors will travel a long distance only for landscapes that are unique. The Cumbrian landscape is still unique (I can always recognise its subtle and individual beauty in any photograph, even if not captioned); but this uniqueness, and the indefinable magic that draws visitors, would be catastrophically diminished by the turbines.

I must also emphasise a more general point. Not one square-mile of new countryside is being created. Instead, it is being steadily diminished by urban incursions and clutter, including satellite masts, new roads, and windfarms. Our overpopulated country - England is nearly four times more densely populated than France - desperately needs to safeguard every square inch of unspoilt beauty or wilderness; even if only for the mental health of its over-stressed inhabitants. Once a bit of countryside is gone, it is gone forever. If we aren’t careful, Britain will soon become nothing more than a dreary stretch of homogenous, suburban mess.

The cruel paradox is that, although wind-turbines are being erected for alleged environmental benefits, the resulting visual pollution causes environmental damage that far outweighs any hypothetical fuel-savings.

Of course we must increase production of sustainable energy; but we are in danger of destroying a priceless natural heritage - just so that bureaucrats can find an easy way to obey targets imposed by Brussels.

If we must have wind-farms, they would be better located in the sea, where there is lesser impact and more wind.

Our green and pleasant land is in desperate need of protection, and I beg readers to send letters of protest before November 11th to: The Chief Planning Officer, Eden District Council, Mansion House, Penrith. CA11 7YG; and to The Onshore Electricity Consents Team, Department of Trade and Industry, Room V.295, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H OET.

John Hatt Firbank, Sedbergh