The idea of an energy efficient design is laudable. However, in this case, a countryside location is totally inappropriate and would be contrary to the locational policies of the development plan. "Notwithstanding the distinctive merits of the scheme, sustainability objectives would be best served by locating the development in an existing service centre. "This would be a better way of reducing the need to travel by placing the housing and employment closer to key services and amenities, as well as near to a labour pool. The countryside would also be protected from unrelated development."

Public footpaths through a popular beauty spot could be redirected to make way for a massive eco-village powered entirely by four wind turbines. Claymoss Properties wants to build the UK’s first eco-friendly holiday camp at the Maer Hills site at Whitmore, near Newcastle. The 159-hectare development includes plans for 800 timber lodges among existing woodlands, two hotels, a golf course, two lakes and a central village area with amenities. The plans have sparked outrage, and now residents fear woodland walks used for decades could be lost to the development.

When the turbines go up, it’s not just the scenery that suffers, it's the atmosphere too. Ed Douglas reveals the environmental costs of wind power

British and French campaigners have defeated plans for a wind farm at the famous battle site.

Their foundations date back more than a thousand years, to the times when the Vikings invaded Scotland's remote islands. But now campaigners fear that dozens of historic shielings – tiny stone dwellings used by crofters and farm tenants – could be damaged or even destroyed on the Isle of Lewis.

MORE applications for wind masts have been put forward across Mid Wales.