ANYONE who cares about our countryside and historic villages should visit Lifton to see the monstrous 250 foot wind turbine that now towers over it (pictured above). Together with the similar sized turbines at Wortham Farm and Roadford the combined effect is to change forever this lovely area beside the Lyd Valley.

The community in Lifton now has to suffer the drastic damage to their environment, a drop in their house values and almost certainly a decrease in their tourism business. We are told that these huge alien structures are necessary to reduce our carbon emissions and give us energy security.

That is nonsense. It would require ten thousand of these turbines to replace one power station and then at the coldest times when the wind does not blow they would produce virtually no power.

The reason why these inefficient turbines are being built is purely financial. For each turbine of the size of the Lifton turbine the developers and the landowners will share a fat profit of 5 million pounds over its lifetime. This is why they do not care about the impact they are having on their neighbours.

We believe in reducing our C02 emissions and have pointed out a number of times to West Devon Borough Council's planners how they could have a policy to do this without us having to suffer the devastating environmental damage being introduced by large wind turbines and solar farms. Unfortunately they are not listening.

If you care like us about preserving our villages and countryside then join us at MABRAKE by emailing [email protected]">[email protected] Together we need to fight these installations, remember it could be your village or community next!

Dr Gary Vanstone FREng

Chairman MABRAKE