Letter: In defence of wind turbines

It is not surprising that the three issues which most concern people about wind turbines have surfaced in your letter column. I would like to respond to each in turn.

On noise: Wind turbines are subject to very strict noise criteria and cannot operate at more than five decibels above background noise. This is very quiet.

The actual sound you might strain to hear even close up is likely to be the gentle swish of the slow turning blades.

Far from playing down the noise factor, those of us who support the Crida community wind project are simply trying to inject some reality into a debate skewed by wild, ill-informed exaggeration.

On "the thin end of the wedge": Since introducing our proposal we have learned of one other possible scheme, but with the experience of an almost year-long feasibility study behind us, we are well aware of all the constraints that stand in the way of a viable project. Any proposed site would have to overcome a whole raft of difficulties.

On visual impact: The scheme is proposing two medium-sized turbines which will reach up to 74m at the blade tip. The much larger turbines found on windfarms have been rejected because they would indeed have been out of scale with the landscape.

Wind turbines do divide opinion, but I would predict that once up they will become widely accepted and perhaps, dare I say, even loved.

Helen Howell, Hon Secretary, Sustainable Bridgnorth