Being a rather rural area the people around here tend to have a very environmentally friendly outlook. With lots of farms, farmers, and so on, you would think that the general outlook here would be to take care of the environment, not pollute etc.,

Tonight, getting home from work, I see the local newspaper on the floor – the Louth Target. The first front page article is about the wind farm down the road in Conisholme. Here’s a few excerpts:

Completion brings the total number of turbines to 20, providing power to more than 13,000 homes – more than a quarter of all homes in East Lindsey.

Yay! So a quarter of the local council’s housing stock is powered through natural means.

There’s more, however:

East Lindsey District councillors granted approval more than two years ago but residents and environmental groups opposed the construction and joined forces with other groups against wind turbines in a countywide pressure group, Lincolnshire Opposed to Onshore Turbines.

They initially succeeded in persuading East Lindsey planning councillors to reject the turbines at Conisholme because of environmental impact on the character of the Marsh landscape, including Louth’s St James’ Church spire.

The thing is – Conisholme is miles away from Louth. It’s difficult to see them from the A16, and in Louth, nestled at the foot of the Wolds, is going to be absolutely unimpacted by a wind turbine farm.

More importantly though is the environmental impact. What impact? There are not protected bird sanctuaries here, it’s farmland, flat and lots of arable fields. It amazes me that people in this day and age are still so resistant to using natural elements for power rather than coal or gas.

Tags: , ,