As we await the expected new onslaught on our landscapes and rural peace by foreign companies cashing in on the wind factory bonanza, there is some good news for those whose homes will be affected.

A landmark court ruling has ordered that Jane Davis be given a discount on her council tax because her £170,000 home has been rendered worthless by a wind turbine 1,000 yards away.

This is effectively an official admission that wind farms, which are accused of 'spoiling countryside views and producing a deafening roar', have a negative effect on house prices.

Of course we've known this for years and it was later confirmed by a study by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

So now the door is open to all those whose homes would be within a mile or two of a wind turbine to object with the full backing of the law.

Councils who might consider approving the plans will now need to consider the loss of their council tax revenue: this on top of all the other negative impacts on our environment, without any significant environmental benefits when the need for 90 per cent conventional back-up generation is taken into account.

One of these impacts is of course safety. In June this year a 16-foot wind turbine blade smashed through a farmhouse roof in Northern Ireland as the farmer and his family slept inside.

Also in June another smashed into the ground near the M1 in the Sheffield area. Luckily no-one was hurt in these two events, the latest of many all over the world.

For those struggling to pay mortgages it will be too late to re-negotiate the price of a degraded property, nor will it help those struggling to gain a place on the property ladder.