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Wind farm blight
7:06am Friday 8th February 2008
Sir - The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Oxfordshire Branch, agrees with your editorial (February 1) that the precious Green Belt surrounding Oxford is no place for windfarms.
CPRE does not oppose wind farms and turbines in principle.
We believe that in every case the potential for electricity generation should be weighed against the impact on the landscape.
The plans to put 125m-tall generators on Green Belt land near Horspath and at Sandford would yield little in the way of power, whilst causing unacceptable environmental damage. Not only that, the essence of the Green Belt is its permanence. If one part is blighted, it opens the door to other parts being blighted too.
We want to see the right renewable technologies in the right places. But we need energy policies and city councils - that value and cherish our countryside, and protect, rather than harm, the Green Belt that has for 50 years secured the character of Oxford City and prevented the endless sprawl that has blighted many other cities in Britain. The city council's proposed development will do little to reduce global warming, or provide power for Oxford, whilst blighting one of Oxford's most valuable environmental and commercial assets. The Green Belt is no place for windfarms.
Helena Whall , Campaign Manager, Campaign to Protect Rural England Oxfordshire Branch
Editor's choice
The Mole and Chicken, Easington, near Thame
One of the pictures on this page gives a good impression of the delights to be enjoyed at the Mole and Chicken on one of those sunny days that now seem as far as can be from our present situation.
Early taste of Christmas wine
Next week is The Oxford Times Wine Club Christmas Tasting and, with just four weeks to go until Christmas Day, it is an excellent opportunity to sample a specially-selected range of wines for the festive season.
Dylan Moran: New Theatre, Oxford
‘I was the first person to discover that if you infected a person with Marmite, he would stand up and bark at the moon.” “Everybody under the age of 35 has the intelligence of raspberry jam.” “Children can hear vegetables hiding.”
Sleeping Beauty, Chipping Norton Theatre
There’s nothing King Couer-de-Loup likes more than a good battle: “We’ll march on King Florizel’s wet and wicked army,” he proclaims. His Queen is not so sure, however. She would rather her husband stayed around: there’s the christening of their daughter Princess Aurora to arrange for a start. And he certainly can’t go out and fight looking like that: “Your chain mail’s got a ladder in it,” she wails.
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