Dear Sir,
I am disappointed, but not surprised, to see this paper and our MP have both taken a line against investment in the region simply because that investment happens to be wind power.
Renewable energy is marked as one of the growth industries of the 21st century. Renewable energy investment has increased six-fold globally since 2004, and present analysis indicates that growth trend shows no signs of stopping. However, the word from our MP is that Co Durham has “done its share” of being involved in that growth. I wonder what other growth industries Mr Wilson would consider us to have “enough” of, such that we don’t want any more investment in Co Durham, thank you very much?
With the North East suffering from low wages and high unemployment what use is a local leadership so unimaginative and lacking in drive that they would work against internal investment in the region because of the aesthetic concerns of a few middle class but noisy inhabitants?
Rather than moan about wind farms and indulge the concerns of astro-turf pro fossil fuel campaigns, why is our MP not looking to take Durham’s position as a current leader in wind farms and leverage that into further investment, jobs and growth?
Let’s install them. Let’s go further and build them here. Let’s export them to other people who want to install them. Let’s get involved with an industry that Bloomberg forecasts will have £8.5 TRILLION invested in it over the next 25 years, rather than protest against windfarms because some people don’t think they look pretty enough.
That presumed ugliness is to beg the question in any event. Are they more disruptive to the landscape than a cooling tower or a smokestack?
Are they more dangerous than fracking for gas? Even if they were monstrosities, which they palpably are not, they still wouldn’t be as ugly as the county’s unacceptable unemployment rate and its declining real wages.
We need local leadership with the imagination and vision to see what the industry of the future will look like. At present all our local grandees seem able to do is look fondly to the past and loudly complain because the future frightens them. Nostalgia is a pleasant evening’s entertainment in the pub, but it’s no basis for a system of government.
Kathryn Beetham
Phil Roberts
Newton Aycliffe Green Party