Action groups from across the Borders - and both East and West Lothian - have called for the current guideline of a minimum of 2km between wind turbines and homes and businesses to be made compulsory to mitigate the impact of wind farms on people's welfare.

In the latest of a series about wind farms, Joe Willis talks to people about their experiences of living in the shadow of the giant turbines. FIGHT wind farm developments to the bitter end - that is the advice from angry residents who say they have suffered years of noise and light disturbance from two turbines.

Bedford Borough Council rejected the scheme saying the scale of the turbines would impact on nearby homes, historic park land and an ancient monument.

In a Question to the Environment Minister in the National Assembly, Elin Jones, Assembly Member for Ceredigion has challenged Carwyn Jones to give priority to the use of Forestry Commission land for windfarm developments.

Residents are raging over plans for a huge wind farm. Around 10 turbines nearly as big as Blackpool Tower have been planned for a site near Marton. ...residents oppose the plans. They claim, ..."The desire to build wind farms is not based on local needs but is driven by the profit motives of the companies and by the greed and selfishness of the landowners involved.

Coronation Power has submitted planning applications for nine 410ft-high wind turbines overlooking Todmorden. The firm says the five machines on Todmorden Moor and four at nearby Reaps Moss will help generate clean and sustainable energy, and tackle the harmful effects of climate change. But the impact on the landscape even before they are built will also be dramatic.

Campaigners objecting to a massive windfarm on a mountain where Welsh prince Owain Glyndwr staged a decisive battle will today stage a peaceful protest. More than 100 turbines, each 140m high, could go up on Mynydd Hyddgen. Developers Airtricity won an Assembly tender for the wind farm, at Nant-y-Moch in the Pumlumon hills above Machynlleth, straddling Powys and Ceredigion.

The landscape that inspired the Bronte sisters to pen some of English literature's most enduring works is now the center of a brewing storm in Britain over wind power. Thornton Moor, near Haworth in West Yorkshire, is the subject of an application by energy company Banks Renewables to build four wind turbines.

Almost 8,000 people signed the petition calling for a ban on wind turbines in Anglesey's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and a 1.5km buffer zone between commercial turbines and homes on the island.

Campaigners against the "further industrialisation" of the Scottish landscape by wind turbines have reacted sceptically to claims of an about turn on the issue by Alex Salmond. ..."If things are going to change, we would also like to see the guideline that suggests wind turbines should be at least 2km from homes being made mandatory. At the moment that guideline is routinely trampled over."

Planners in north Devon are recommending the go-ahead for a wind monitoring mast. The 55m (180ft) high temporary structure will monitor the suitability of the site at Wheeler’s Cross for a wind farm. It there is enough wind, developers Coronation Power want to apply to erect four turbines on the site.

A community councillor from Argyll is mounting a landmark legal challenge against the UK and the EU at the United Nations in Geneva this week over their renewables policies, on the grounds that the public is being denied the truth about the alleged benefits, and the adverse impact, of wind power.

Phil Jones, planning manager at the NEA [North East Assembly] Phil Jones, planning manager at the NEA, warned the combined sites, along with the 10 turbines planned for Moorsyde, could create "a wind farm landscape". His reports adds: "Wind energy development could interrupt the openness of the landscape to some extent and would form a dominant focus in a landscape with a strong rural character."

Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist and wildlife broadcaster, has enraged countryside campaigners by supporting a 70 metre tall wind turbine for Glyndebourne opera house. In an unlikely stand-off, the veteran environmentalist is on collision course with the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). Conservationists object to the wind turbine because the site is in the South Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. ...He believes the wind turbine will reduce pollution in the area and help to save the wider planet from the impacts of climate change. His views are set out in a submission sent in advance to the planning inspectorate.

A moratorium should be placed on new wind turbine developments until councils are given clearer guidance from government, environment minister Fergus Ewing has been told. MSPs warned that local communities feel they are "under attack" from energy firms whose desperation to snap up land across Scotland "resembles the prospecting days of the American gold rush".

Residents are celebrating after plans for a wind farm near Beverley were thrown out. East Riding councillors unanimously rejected proposals to build a wind farm with 12 turbines up to 100 metres high at Routh, because of concerns they would spoil the views from Beverley Westwood. As reported on the Mail’s website yesterday, councillors voted against the scheme proposed by Ridgewind Limited amid fears views of Beverley Minster, in particular, would be ruined.

A NORTH Sutherland community stands to gain up to half a million pounds a year in community benefit from wind farms, it emerged this week. But the "pot of gold" has failed to impress some Strathy residents who this week angrily dismissed it as a sweetener, aimed at making them accept major changes to their local landscape. ...The power company wants to build a £90 million, 35-turbine development on the north side of Strathy and a follow-up 77-turbine development on the south side of the forest.

Eight days ago, to the jubilation of its critics and environmentalists, it emerged that the Scottish executive was "minded to refuse" the £500m scheme as it would seriously damage the moor's extremely fragile, internationally-protected habitats for rare birds such as dunlin, golden eagles, merlin, golden plover and red-throated divers. The moor itself is one of the most ecologically-significant peat bogs in Europe. Scottish ministers have since come under intense pressure to reverse that provisional decision before making a final announcement this month. Councillors, crofters' leaders and the developers are vigorously lobbying ministers and the European commission to save the north Lewis scheme, or at least find a compromise. Today the local Scottish National party MSP, Alasdair Allan, will face those bitterly-disappointed people at a meeting on Lewis.