WITH four very local planning applications for single wind turbines being considered by Mid Devon planners - Pilham Farm (Chawleigh - 35m high); Mann's Newton (Zeal Monachorum - 77m), Hawkridge Farm (Coldridge - 71m) and Langlands (Morchard Bishop - 77m) - there is a growing threat that we could become surrounded by a giant wind farm which is spreading from Cornwall through Torridge District and into this our treasured landscape.

With the recent government initiative which encourages financial incentives to those who will accept these monstrosities into their neighbourhood whilst, at the same time, saying that landscape and heritage concerns and local opinion can now over-ride the presumption in favour of "renewable energy" schemes, communities are likely to be divided.

Already I know of long-term friendships between farmers which have come to an end over their disagreements between the desire to maintain a beautiful and historic landscape or whether to wreck it simply for greed when there is no need.

The government has totally and utterly failed to address the real issue, which is the many years that this country hasn't had a sustainable energy policy.

Instead, it has backed the obsolete technology of windmills (which were superseded by the advancements made in the Industrial Revolution) and which cannot be financially viable without the subsidies which we all pay for out of our own pockets.

In the words of John Hayes MP, "Enough is Enough".

Roland Smith

Pitt Court

Nymet Rowland