Power solution is not in wind

The folly of this government seems to know no bounds, the latest manifestation of which is the required proliferation of wind farms throughout the land which they insist must be built to meet our future energy needs.

It seems our countryside is to be permanently blighted with these huge, monstrous wind turbines, some more than 350 feet high, in most of the beautiful and wild upland landscapes throughout Britain.

No-one doubts the need to produce this energy, but as ever the government has gone off half-cock, persuaded that "spin induced action" for the electorate to behold is preferable to sensibly thought-out solutions which properly safeguard our national heritage.

The biggest problem here is that these monstrosities will not even produce the forecasted power needed to meet the targeted reductions.

They will, however, certainly ruin our country's landscape and decimate wildlife for the enjoyment of generations our our children yet unborn.

Windpower by its very nature is unreliable, but so enthralled by its possibilities is this government that they have already decreed that subsidies amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds be allotted for the construction of turbines.

The true experts have already stated that this wind turbine power provision is far from cheap (as well as being unsightly) and will not provide the power presently being forecasted.

It has been estimated that the provision of two long-life bulbs per household for the 25 million homes throughout the country would save the energy that these turbines are producing.

Why isn't the government providing greater subsidies for loft insulation and added inducements for householders to install energy-saving light bulbs instead of inflicting wind farms on us, as the only trumpeted panacea to reduce our country's greenhouse gas emissions?

John Lilley, Mease Avenue, Burntwood.