If you don't want to see West Suffolk looking like THIS

(an imaginary scene looking West from Brockley)

do something about it NOW!

Help Us Stop the Destruction of Our Countryside!
Wind Turbines are not the solution. Click here to see why. Unfortunately those that profit from them (landowners and power companies) want to get as many as possible built before the bubble bursts.

There is ample evidence that once one wind farm has been approved others will follow. If we let Chedburgh Airfeld be developed then we could be faced with the nightmare scenario depicted above.

We need to stop this NOW!

There are many ways that you can help.

Who Are We
We are a group of people living in Suffolk who do not want the tranquillity and landscape of our area, qualities that we value highly, ruined.

Where is Chedburgh
Chedburgh is 5 miles south-west of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in the heart of rural East Anglia. You can find it on Google Maps by clicking here.

Why Are We Concerned
To date, Suffolk has escaped the wind farm gold rush, partly because it is relatively densely populated and partly because it is flat, low-lying and not subject to consistent high winds.

That is about to change, and we are concerned that the Chedburgh Airfield development is only the first of many to come.

• Once one wind farm has been established a precedent has been set.
• Once one wind farm has been established the surrounding area becomes designated as industrial and is then subject to fewer and less onerous planning restrictions.
• Once one wind farm has been established it becomes very much more difficult to object to more of the same.

We need to stop this development before it can get off the ground and we need your help to stop it. There are many ways that you can help, including writing to the landowners, writing to the local planning committee, writing to the papers, signing our petition and generally making your voice heard. See the section 'How You Can Help' for full details.

Why We Are Against It
It is not just 'nimbyism' that drives our concern. There are some very real dangers to everyone in the surrounding area.

• The area is a designated low-flying area and there is a danger of aircraft, particularly military aircraft, hitting a turbine.
• They would be sited close to a major and already dangerous road, the A143, potentially causing even further mayhem.
• The rotating blades can cause problems with radar and they will be within sight of Stansted airport and, even more so, Mildenhall air base.
• On a quiet night (the wind can still blow 400ft up!) they can be heard several miles way, even as far as Bury St Edmunds.
• Suffolk is a relatively flat county, they will therefore be clearly visible for many miles in all directions.
• They can be a health risk to those living within a mile or more of them (and there are many people who will be).
• We, in Suffolk, will not benefit in any way from them.

Why Wind Farms are not the Solution
You would have thought that electricity generated from 'free' wind would be a real winner. Unfortunately it is not a simple or straight-forward as that.

There are 2 big drawbacks to wind power:-

• They are an intermittent source of energy (after all, the wind does not blow all the time and can sometimes blow too hard for a turbine). As a result, wind energy can only supplement other energy sources, never replace it. Conventional power stations need to keep running just so as to be ready for when the wind drops (or becomes too strong). So they will still be kicking out CO2 emissions whatever the turbines generate!
• Wind Farms are only being developed because they are highly subsidised (the operators get more than twice as much in subsidy as they do from selling the electricity generated). Building onshore wind farms is an easy and cheap route to large handouts. This might not matter if wind farms were the only alternative to current energy sources - but they are not. As a result they are needlessly siphoning money away from other, more reliable, technologies such as bio-fuels, tidal and hydro power etc.

At best wind farms will only ever make an insignificant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions even if we have 5 or 10 times the current number. And the cost in terms of trashed landscape, blighted lives and missed opportunities is just not worth it.

Some Real Facts
The wind power industry is adept at spinning half truths into whole truths.

• They claim that wind turbines are 30% efficient - Half true. A few in the windier parts of the country are. The majority are much less efficient, with the average being 26% (24% in the East of England [ie some are much less efficient than that, even!]). (DTI Trends http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file27084.pdf p29)
• They claim that each MegaWatt of wind power generated electricity will save 2,260 tonnes of CO2 per year - Wrong. They assume all electricity is generated using dirty coal, this is not the case as most power stations are now either gas or nuclear. The real 'saving' is 1,130 tonnes per year, half of the wind power industry claim! (and that is before factoring in the need to keep conventional power stations running. Some research contends that the net reduction in CO2 emissions is NIL! [David Tolley (Innogy Plc), “NETA The Consequences – A Keynote Address”, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Jan. 2003.]) (Calculations based on figures from DEFRA Fuel Conversion Factors for Grid Electricity http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/envrp/gas/envrpgas-annexes.pdf p1)
• They claim that electricity generated by wind turbines can replace that generated by existing power stations - Wrong. Wind power is variable, electricity demand requires that the capacity be there when it is needed (there is no way to store mains electricity). Therefore we have to keep the power stations online and powered up so that they are ready to take over when the wind dies. (Renewable Energy Foundation http://www.ref.org.uk/images/pdfs/eon.2005.REF.pdf) (Don't believe the wind power industry when they tell you that the demand is higher when the wind blows, that is not true. Also don't beleive them when they say the wind always blows somewhere in the UK. That is not true, either). Bizarrely, we may even need to build more conventional power stations if we have too many wind farms because of the need to underpin wind farm electricity with a reliable backup - where on earth is the sense in that!
• They claim that property prices are not affected by a wind farm - Wrong, a number of studies have shown that they are. Think about it, would you prefer to buy a house in a quiet tranquil setting or that same house next to a huge turbine - the answer's obvious, isn't it!
• They claim that noise is not an issue - Wrong. (RICS Survey 2004 http://www.rics.org/NR/rdonlyres/66225A93-840F-49F2-8820-0EBCCC29E8A4/0/wind farmsfinalreport.pdf) They don't live next to wind turbines, other residents do and have complained vociferously - who would you believe? There have also been a number of studies which suggest that wind farms should not be built closer than 1 mile to habitation. (See Noise Association Report)
• They don't mention subsidies - Dishonest. A 3 MegaWatt wind turbine (similar to those proposed for Chedburgh) will receive a subsidy of up to £350,000 per year! (Calculations based on http://www.countryguardian.net/The Case Against wind farms .pdf p4) (that is each turbine, by the way. The Chedburgh wind farm will generate a subsidy of up to £2.8 million per year for the operator - a nice little earner.)
• They also don't mention that it is more cost effective to give every householder an energy saving light bulb than it is to pay such huge subsidies to wind turbine operators - Dishonest. (Calculations based on http://www.countryguardian.net/The Case Against wind farms .pdf p48)

Don't take our word for any of this, follow the links and read the independent reports. In particular read 'The Case Against Wind Farms on the www.countryguardian.net website.

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