RESIDENTS who claim a windfarm on the fells would destroy the landscape and devastate tourism are being urged to oppose the development before it even becomes a formal proposal.

There was standing room only at a packed Orton Village Hall where local people came together to hear about the windfarm plan for an area of unspoilt fell between Bretherdale and Borrowdale called Whinash.

Apart from a small number of supporters of windfarms, the meeting was overwhelmingly opposed to the scheme, which is being developed by West Coast Energy.

Ecologist and environmental scientist Sir Martin Holdgate outlined the problems of the greenhouse effect and global warming, and explained why the Government was keen to promote renewable energy sources.

Not opposed to windfarms in principle, Sir Martin said there was a desperate need for a strategy to prevent them cropping up in the wrong place. Whinash was a "classic" example of such a wrong place, he said.

"They stick out in the landscape like a forest of big, sore white thumbs, and the cost to tourism and other industries and property values does need to be taken into account in the evaluation."

Biologist Dr Mike Hall said the turbines that could be built at Whinash would be around 290 to 320 feet tall, with a tip speed of 170 mph.

He pointed to the growth in demand for electricity, but said that windfarms would not produce the answer, and that it would require 130,000 turbines of the type currently being built to meet the shortfall in power in 2020 caused by growth in demand and the loss of the nuclear capacity.

"Wind can make only a small and unreliable contribution to UK energy demands. To approve the Whinash proposal would in fact amount to an act of legalised vandalism to the countryside in this area."

Dave Brierly, a member of the Marton, Askam and Ireleth Wind Action Group, spoke about his experiences of living next to a windfarm, and severe noise and other nuisance. He advised those present to fight the Whinash development from the outset, and not wait for the scheme to be built.

Businessman Shaun Laidler of Friends of Eden, Lakeland and Lunesdale Scenery, gave practical tips about who to lobby, including Eden District Council. It was essential that the plan underwent the scrutiny of a public inquiry, he said.

"We can still put a stop to this development but we need your help the future of these fells is in your hands."

The developer told the Gazette that if the plan went ahead they would seek to enter an agreement with the landowner, the Lowther Trust.

Lord Lonsdale told the meeting that the Whinash windfarm was nothing to do with him, and although Lowther estate used to be his, it was now in six separate ownerships, and the plans were going ahead despite his protestations.

A spokesperson for West Coast Energy previously told the Gazette that investigations were being carried out at the site, but there were - as yet - no detailed proposals.

April 17, 2003 15:30