In July Ecotricity was granted planning consent by just one vote to install the turbines at the Hethel track, despite strong objections from families who claimed the three 120 metre high turbines would blight the community. At that time the issue of whether the turbines would need aviation warning lights was raised and the committee was informed neither the MoD or Norwich International Airport had requested such lights. But since permission was granted, the MoD has revised its policies and wants to see one aviation warning light on each turbine.

RURAL campaigners have accused a Government quango of encouraging “the industrialisation of the countryside” after failing to stand up to wind-farm developers. Natural England was set up by the Government a year ago with the aim of conserving and enhancing landscapes in rural areas, and has a £500m budget to help preserve countryside life across England. But the conservation body has come in for criticism from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which says the quango is turning its back on places, such as Northumberland, which are fighting plans to build wind farms in scenic locations. ...A spokesman for Natural England said: “We are committed to improving the environment and the aim of providing more renewable energy with the highest environmental standards. “But we will only support these developments in the appropriate place and with due consideration to their impact.

A wind turbine that was planned to help power the London Olympics may have to be switched off during games to stop disturbing the athletes, the organisers admitted today. Plans for the turbine were designed to underline the organiser's ambition to stage the greenest-ever games. But they face embarrassment following a report in New Civil Engineer magazine which discovered that the engineers for Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) are looking at a number of options for minimising distractions from the turbine, including locking them in a fixed position. It reported that ODA's infrastructure director Simon Wright is concerned that the turbine will cause the light to flicker and distract competitors.

Within weeks of the Government's Energy Review (1) proposing that planning controls be relaxed to speed up the introduction of wind farms, a new report (2) reveals that badly-sited wind turbines can cause real noise problems for local communities.

"'Shadow-flicker' is a recognised problem with wind turbines. That's why they aren't built near housing developments. And we want to be good neighbours."

They introduced the world to "environmentally friendly" energy, but now some of Europe's "greenest" countries are under pressure to backtrack on wind farms as public anger grows over their impact on the countryside.

The wind energy debate represents a new kind of environmental controversy which divides environmentalists of different persuasions who attach contrasting priority to global and local concerns. Case studies of public attitudes towards existing and proposed windfarm developments in Scotland and Ireland are used to test three counter-intuitive hypotheses derived from previous attitudinal research.

Editor's Note: This study was conducted in collaboration with the Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen. The Institute's commercial arm, Macaulay Enterprises, acts as a consultant for the renewables industry, and is linked to the Scottish Renewables Forum and the British Wind Energy Association.

The pro-wind pre-disposition of the authors is evident and should not be ignored when evaluating survey results. Survey respondents generally expressed support of wind energy based on the belief that it was a solution for global warming. Given wind energy's limited effectiveness in reducing greenhouse gases based on today’s studies, we question how survey participants might respond if contacted again. The report also comments that communities selected had no organized opposition to the wind facilities. Today, throughout England, Wales and Scotland, organized opposition is the norm, not the exception.