I HAVE followed the correspondence in your paper regarding Mrs Rumbelow’s original concern regarding the wind farm at Graveley and the follow-up letters from Messrs Brady and Skillin.

I, along with other concerned people, attended a meeting organised by Huntingdonshire District Council in Kimbolton in October, which Mrs Rumbelow and her husband, attended. This meeting, a forum advising the public on activities in the district, also takes questions and comments from the public on council activities. Wind farms were part of the agenda on that evening.

At this meeting, attended by many councillors and officers, including Ian Bates, the leader of the council, listened to Mrs Rumbelow advise the meeting of her concerns. She also advised the meeting, but not mentioned in her letter to The Hunts Post, that her mother, living in America, has wind turbines near her home. Her mother has experienced major problems with noise. Also the constant movement of the blades in very distracting and wearing, leaving her very tired.

In answer to the statement by Mr Skillin stating that Graveley is nowhere near Loves Farm, the range of the windfarm covers the area from just outside Great Paxton to the boundary of Graveley village. Also, the immensity of the turbines will have a major visual impact on the houses being built on the northern end of Loves Farm development: the nearest turbine will be only about 1.5 miles away.

These facts were identified by the action group at an early stage, in early 2009, and brought to the attention of the developers on site. The Loves Farm developers probably did not want to acknowledge the negative effect the wind farm could have on their development.

The visual impact of the wind farm will also affect existing homes on the western edge of St Neots, including the developments down to and near the lock at Little Paxton.

People catching trains from both St Neots and Huntingdon stations will see them. That gives you an idea of their size and visual impact they would have.

The comment on wind power by Mr Brady is incorrect. Yes wind power is a renewable energy, but it is not clean in the sense of cutting CO2 or replacing existing generator systems. The energy used to manufacture and transport the turbine and the continuous need of back-up power to compensate for the low output from the turbine are not compensated by the so called ‘clean’ energy the turbine produces.

Wind turbines are very inefficient, so inefficient the operators get a massive subsidy for the capital investment to build and operate them. The efficiency of the turbines for the Graveley site is acknowledged at being under 24 per cent on average. Much of the time, especially in cold weather conditions similar to the cold snap we are experiencing now when power is at peak demand, output from wind turbines will be zero. In these conditions there is little or no wind for days on end.

If Mr Brady is paying domestic fuel bills about 11 per cent of the bill is a hidden levy (or green tax), paying the subsidy direct to the power companies (plus VAT), via Ofgen, for renewable energy of which well over 95 per cent goes to wind farm operators. This levy on your bill is increasing to well over 15 per cent in the next couple of years or so.

This subsidy raises the value of electricity generated by the windfarm operator from the open market value of about �70,000 per turbine per year to approximately �500,000 per year – at our expense.

Currently, in the villages around the Cotton Farm windfarm site, people are having a tougher time than most in trying to sell properties.

I wonder if Mr Brady and his neighbours at Alconbury Weston are aware of the windfarm project less than two miles away from his back yard at Woolley Hill. If these 127m high machines are built they will dominate his view to the south west. Also, he is in range of potential noise problems. could experience the same noise and visual problems Mrs Rumbelow’s mum is experiencing in the States.

BEV GRAY

High Street

Graveley