IT seems as though some of the truths pooh-poohed by the advocates of wind farms are now coming home to roost.

First we were told that Cumbria had the perfect conditions for wind farms.

The recent long periods of windless, icy weather have made some people think again.

The drive to dump all those nasty polluting power stations has skidded to a halt. If we had been relying on wind power a few weeks ago, we would have all been frozen to the bed knobs!

The voices of those eulogising the attractiveness of the wind turbines themselves have tailed off into silence as they are now seeing the massive collection of electricity pylons necessary to make the connection to the National Grid.

But then there is yet another snag: there aren’t suitable connections to the Grid and new cabling has to be provided at vast expense. And guess who is going to pay for that.

While the spin doctors try to find suitable weasel words to explain all this away, someone has pointed out that to erect a turbine you need to dig a whopping great hole and fill it with steel supports and concrete (about 1,000 tons per turbine).

All the top soil and under-layers of earth are removed at great expense and no doubt sold or bunged in a landfill site.

When the turbine reaches the end of its (useful?) life it can be dismantled and removed.

But what of the concrete and steel now littering our once-beautiful countryside? Who will clear that?

What will all this do to the water courses on and under the fell sides? What long-term effect will that have on the appearance of our world class National Park?
And who is going to bring back all our soil?