THE dominating issue in Mid Wales at present is the mutilation of our uplands by windfarms, sub-stations and pylons.
We had become used to accommodating a few windfarms, though some of us do not like them, or like the divisions they create within our communities and our families. But what was proposed by the Assembly Government in 2005, and is only now impacting on the awareness of residents is on a completely different scale.
The next stage of the Assembly Government’s plan for the ‘industrialisation’ of the mid Wales uplands will involve around 800 wind turbines, a 20 acre substation and up to 100 kilometres of cables, including a 400 kv cable carried on 150' high steel towers from somewhere in the Newtown area to somewhere in mid Shropshire.
And it’s probable that this will only be the start of it.
This wholesale destruction of our landscape will be on a scale that has never before been seen in mid Wales. It is scarcely believable that Assembly Members, purporting to represent Welsh interests could even contemplate such a devastating strike against the heart of rural Wales.
The reason these dreadful proposals have reached their current stage, is that the people of mid Wales had not realised quite what the Assembly Government’s ‘renewable energy’ policies (as formalised in Technical Advice Note 8) actually meant. All of us support 'renewable energy', but it’s not the same thing as mutilating the uplands of Wales.
For years, the focus of Government has been on onshore wind farms, because politicians could tilt at these windmills and say look at what we’re doing. Aren’t we great? Well they are not great. They are not even good.
There is a growing realisation that these wind farms do not produce what we've been told they produce. Only this week, the Royal Economic Society tell us that in 2010, wind turbines were generating for only 21% of the time – compared with 29% the previous year. The people of mid Wales are reasonable people, and we would understand if it was necessary to destroy our landscapes for some greater good - some greater benefit of national importance.
But not for this pointless, hugely expensive, ‘folly’. Mid Wales is to be sacrificed at the altar of a hopelessly false god. It makes no sense, and its going to cost us all a fortune into the bad bargain.
This attack on the people of Mid Wales is worse than the drowning of Tryweryn in the middle of the last century, and it will be remembered as long into the future. It is vandalism on an epic scale. I have never known the people of Mid Wales so angry.
This is the biggest issue to impact on Montgomeryshire during my lifetime. We know that many governments in the developed world have considered building onshore wind farms - and as we find out more about their inefficiency and cost, some governments are already having second thoughts.
They are looking at other forms of renewable energy, including locating wind farms offshore. In 20 years time, we will be looking back and wondering why on earth we did it – just as we wonder why we built concrete tower blocks and vast coniferous forests in the 60s.
It may be that the new Assembly Government will simply ignore us. Maybe they will not care about the people of Mid Wales.
As long as its not anywhere near Cardiff, or what they can see from their office windows, they will be content to inflict such environmental vandalism on Mid Wales. What we must do is make sure that they are fully aware of what they are guilty of. We must leave no room for excuses.
Soon after the new Assembly Members take their place next month, we should visit them in Cardiff Bay, and let them know exactly what we think.