The Dartmoor Preservation Association applauds the two planning inspectors who have endorsed local democracy and upheld West Devon Council’s planning committee’s refusal of turbines at Yelland and now Lamerton.The deciding factor for both was the harm to the special landscapes surrounding Dartmoor National Park and the distant views to and from the high moor. Critical too for Lamerton was the quiet, still, distinctive local landscape which is the very special setting of Brent Tor Church and the scheduled barrows below it.

Both judgments confirm the inestimable value of Dartmoor, the benefits and enjoyment of which do not stop at the National Park boundary.

The Den Brook public inquiry ended last week and will, we hope and pray, be the hat-trick which affirms these principles.

Whichever way that decision goes, we also hope that wind power developers may now be encouraged to seek more appropriate sites further from Dartmoor and the more beautiful parts of Devon, and might even invest more effort in developing more reliable and less intrusive methods of renewable energy generation.

The DPA has battled long and hard, and dug deep into its reserves, to oppose all three windfarms. We have supported all three local action groups through the planning process and three lengthy public inquiries. John Bainbridge’s letter (November 30) suggests, somewhat disingenuously, that he attended the Den Brook inquiry and the DPA was nowhere to be seen or heard.

If Mr Bainbridge had come to any of the three public hearings, even for half a day, he would have heard the DPA giving persuasive evidence and would have seen us fighting shoulder to shoulder with CPRE, the Park Authority and the local people throughout all three inquiries.

He is clearly out of touch with how the real battles are being fought and won; and he should check his facts before slating the DPA or the Park Authority in public. We are all on the same side in this, but there are several ways to skin a cat.

More importantly now, fingers crossed for the right decision on Den Brook, expected the end of January.