Bucks Lacks Enough Wind

At the 14 March 2006 meeting of Milton Keynes Council, Cllr. Andrew Geary proposed a motion on renewable and sustainable energy in Milton Keynes:

“Renewable and sustainable energy in Milton Keynes

1. That this Council supports appropriate sources and methods of sustainable and renewable energy in the Borough of Milton Keynes.
2. That due to the lack of area and distance between rural and suburban developments, this Council does not support the introduction of commercial scale wind farms within the Borough of Milton Keynes, thereby helping to protect the quality of life currently enjoyed by the rural and urban fringe communities of the Borough of Milton Keynes.”

The motion was then amended by the Council, effectively stating that the existing policy (DC5) adequately protects the rural areas of Milton Keynes from wind turbine developments.

BLEW is a non-political organisation; however this was an important opportunity to make our views known to the Council. The following quote is a speech from a local resident who spoke to the meeting, supporting Cllr. Geary’s motion:

“I am present this evening to speak as a member of Bucks Lacks Enough Wind - a non-political community action group from within the Borough of Milton Keynes.

We support the use of renewable energy, where it makes economic and environmental sense to do so. With that in mind, it is entirely appropriate that the Council should support appropriate sources and methods of sustainable and renewable energy in the Borough of Milton Keynes. These sources may come from within or outside of the Borough - and example technologies include: biomass; offshore wind and tidal electricity generation; use of biofuels for transport; and greater use of domestic renewable energy (e.g. solar thermal) combined with initiatives to promote better use of energy within our homes, workplaces, and public facilities.

Having stated broad support for the use of energy from renewable sources, the creation of commercial-scale wind farms within the Borough would have an irreversible impact upon the quality of life enjoyed by those who live in the rural and urban fringe communities within the Milton Keynes area (and beyond). Once developed, such sites would typically have a 25-year lifespan, after which they would be decommissioned, and could become designated brown field sites - in the middle of the countryside and without the necessary infrastructure to support further development.

Information from the Renewable Energy Foundation indicates that:

• A wind turbine saves about 88kg of cardon dioxide (CO₂) an hour – but to put that into perspective, a single heavy goods vehicle (or 8 cars) travelling at 56mph emits around 125kg of CO₂ an hour.
• A commercial wind farm in this area (one of the least windy parts of the country) could be expected to cost the UK consumer £2.35 million a year in subsidies to save 0.00008% of the UK’s CO₂ emissions total.

We feel that the economic case for commercial-scale wind farms does not justify the impact which their introduction would have on the quality of life for those who live nearby.

There is insufficient time here to provide further details of why we think wind turbines are unsuitable for the region and I’m sure the topic will be discussed in this chamber many times over the next few months; however when asked about wind turbines in a recent Radio 4 interview, the eminent ecologist Professor David Bellamy, said that “these things don’t work, stop building them now”.

As Cllr. Wicker mentioned earlier, Milton Keynes prides itself on its green space and is fortunate to have an area of attractive landscape which spans the rural areas in the north of the Borough. Earlier this evening, Cllr. [Douglas] McCall stressed the need to preserve such areas. Our view is that there is plenty which can (and should) be done to promote the use of renewable energy technologies in a modern, vibrant Borough such as Milton Keynes; however this should not be at the expense of our countryside. Consequently, we support both elements of Councillor Geary’s motion and feel that the motion should be voted on in its original form as the amendment will not sufficiently safeguard the rural and urban fringe areas that it is aimed to protect.”

Official minutes are available from Milton Keynes Council.

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