A leading countryside magazine has identified what it believes to be the ten most beautiful British landscapes under threat from wind farm development. Country Life claims that from Loch Ness in the Highlands to Romney Marsh in Kent some of our most historic landscapes are in jeopardy, including some with high levels of environmental protection.
As part of its commitment to introducing more environmentally friendly power sources under the Kyoto Agreement on climate change, the government is considering many hundreds of proposals and applications for land based wind turbines.
Included in these proposals are some highly controversial sites, such as Whinash bordering the Lake District National Park, which would see forty 300ft turbines located in unspoilt Cumbrian countryside, and this is just phase one of a development that could eventually extend to 150 turbines.
Equally controversial are proposed developments at Ramsbury in Wiltshire, which is inside an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and Romney Marsh in Kent, where twenty-seven 300ft turbines are planned.
Country Life's ten most threatened landscapes are:
1. Ramsbury, Wiltshire
2. Bradworthy, North Devon
3. Saddleworth Moor, Lancashire
4. Romeny Marsh, Kent
5. Whinash, Cumbria
6. Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire
7. Parham, Suffolk
8. Knabs Ridge, North Yorkshire
9. Pentre Tump, Radnor Forest, Powys
10. Loch Ness, Highland
Emily Richmond, Head of the Countryside Protection at the Ramblers' Association, said, "We fully support the move to renewable energy, but we don?t believe that national policy to minimise the impacts of climate change should destroy the countryside. Now is a time when we should be looking to create a win-win situation by increasing our capacity to develop renewables, all renewables not just wind, and ensure that we protect the countryside."
"Our major concern is that the government is relaxing planning criteria to allow renewable energy construction projects, this is not the best use of available planning tools to ensure that while renewable development is allowed to progress, it is sensibly controlled by the planning system. This is a point we heavily stressed during the recent review of the Planning Policy Statement 22: Renewable Energy."
Country Life magazine
