Anti-pylon campaigners battle 'industrialisation' of Wales

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 16 Jul 2012, 14:30

The Guardian - 16/07/12

Campaigners say plans for 30 miles of cables connecting 500 wind turbines will ruin the landscape and damage tourism.

Article continues ...

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 16 Jul 2012, 15:06

Lost the link, but I saw a report on Grauniad this morning that most lower and middle income families were planning fewer day trips this summer because they have less spare cash (from higher energy bills, etc).

Of course, it is all the fault of those wind turbines.

rue_d_etropal · Post by **rue_d_etropal** » 16 Jul 2012, 19:41

Traveling through mid Wales over past couple of years I keep seeing these signs trying to stop wind turbines. I would like to see someone put up a sign saying 'No windturbines, no electricity', or 'Windturbines or electricity, your choice!' I wonder how many local people(I would not describe many as locals) would be prepared to give up their electricity connection just to keep the view.
Also many of the signs talk of 'pylons' not turbines. I initially thought it was just a campaign against electricity pylons, and thought the easy answer was to bury the cables. Not too certain if it was intended confusion, or just incompetence and misunderstanding on the terms.

There is also a big difference between putting up a few windturbines and connecting power cables and building an industrial sized power plant in someone-elses back yard. If sometime in future an alternative power supply is discovered, removing the pylons and turbines would return the view back to what it was before, but closing the industrial power plant would leave a scar on the landscape for years, and a badly contaminated ground.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 16 Jul 2012, 21:57

I think part of the problem in Mid Wales is that the turbines are elsewhere in Wales, and the pylons carry the electricity across the area the objectors live in, to England. I think I'd rather have the turbines than the pylons. If the power is being generated for export, and local people don't get any benefit from it, I can understand why they don't like it.

There certainly is a fair bit of objection to wind turbines. I've stood in a field with a panoramic view, and had pointed out where all the turbines are going, and they will make quite a difference.

The industrial revolution happened in areas near to the energy and raw material sources. Now the power and big money is concentrated in areas without the resources, and it sucks in the resources it "needs" from poorer and less populated areas. Wales is a low pay area with few well paid jobs, and big business from outside makes the money.

Rather than stopping railway electrification at Swansea, how about reopening and electrifying the Carmarthen - Aberystwyth line, and setting up more businesses near the wind turbines!