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Daily Post                               Aug 9 2005

Call for referendum on wind turbines

A PETITION was launched across Wales yesterday yesterday calling for a regional referendum on plans for hundreds of wind turbines in the countryside.

Mid Wales businessman Dan Munford claimed the industrial wind turbines standing higher than Nelson's Column would blight the landscape of rural Wales.

Assembly government consultation on proposals to establish seven strategic sites for windfarms was insufficient, he argued.

"This is the point behind the petition campaign. We demand our democratic right to consultation," he said yesterday.. "I'm a moderate man and I believe in renewable energy but when I read more about this I realised it was all about politics not climate change."

Mr Munford, a former chair of Montgomeryshire Liberal Democrats and latterly a Conservative candidate, said the issue cut through party political lines.

"I started this idea in mid Wales but this petition is something that groups across Wales can unite behind.

"The Assembly have managed to unite large numbers of people against their proposals because very little public consultation has taken place.

"We have to remind Assembly politicians that Wales belongs to people not government and that this referendum is our right," the Welshpool-based director of Insight Research said.

Proposals for more wind farms were outlined in the Assembly's new policy guidelines for local authorities, Tan 8.

It established seven strategic sites for controversial large-scale windfarms across Wales almost doubling the existing 400 turbines.

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SHROPSHIRE STAR   - *online edition

Last Updated : Aug 09, 2005    

   

Fight for say on wind turbines

A Mid Wales man has launched a petition against the government's scheme for hundreds more wind farms across Wales that he claims will destroy the future for tourism and much-needed new jobs in areas like Montgomeryshire.

Dan Munford, from Welshpool, says he was appalled that the Assembly had failed to consult the public first.

He claims the plans to build hundreds more industrial wind turbines, many of which would be higher than Nelson's Column, would be sited across the most beautiful and unspoilt parts of the country.

He decided to start a petition covering the proposals for Montgomeryshire - sites around Carno and south of Newtown - but was contacted by so many people from both north and south Wales that the petition demanding a referendum on the national proposals has now been launched nationwide.

Mr Munford added: "They didn't ask us. This is the point behind the petition. We demand our democratic right to consultation. I'm a moderate man and I believe in renewable energy but when I read more about this I realised it was all about politics not climate change."

Petition forms are already circulating for areas affected in North, Mid & West and South Wales. They are available for each area from dan@insightresearch.co.uk



* This article was on the front page of the print edition.