Letters: Wind is no answer

Wind power is necessarily intermittent. The wind turbines fail in low and in high wind conditions. They only deliver about a third of their installed capacity. They cannot replace the continuous power supply we all need.

The powerline infrastructure must cater for when wind power is off as well as when it is on. That needs more infrastructure not less!

Unfortunately wind power has serious limitations. Apart from being intermittent, it needs vast installations to generate a significant output. Very large wind turbines typically have capacity 600kw. There are super-large ones at 1mw and, developing for off-shore use, even 2mw. You need three of them to deliver the capacity of one because of weather variability.

It would take over 5,000 super-large wind turbines to equal the Teesside Power Station capacity of 1845mw, averaged over time, but they could never do it continuously. Even 50 of these huge machines, much bigger than the largest pylons, would severely degrade Teesdale. And they would add to the need for overhead lines in Teesdale and beyond.

There is scope in Teesdale for other renewables, including hydro and biomass, which could make the area self-supporting. More important, there is developing small-scale generation for local use which will be cheaper than power from the grid - the sort of micro-generator for combined heat and power (CHP) now installed in Durham County Hall. Installed locally in farms, hotels and villages, they could indeed make Teesdale self-sufficient while reducing the need for powerlines.

There are competing strategies of scale: small and distributed or huge and industrial.

If the industrial wind lobby gets its way, Teesdale could be blighted by an inescapable and overbearing army of monstrous machines and powerline wirescape. On the other hand the Teesdale renewable energy challenge might just get it right, without wind.

MIKE O'CARROLL

Chairman of Revolt,

Welbury,

Northallerton.

Question of status

Sir, - The residents of Muker and Gunnerside are right to be concerned of the effect conservation status may have.

Here, in Richmond, there is a conservation area bordering Queens Road furnished with fine railings. The district council sees fit to grant advertising on these railings, discriminating in favour of some businesses and organisations and therefore against others. Occasionally a slang word of doubtful taste appears.

Many other towns do not have the facility to disfigure their last remaining conservation assets and yet there is no evidence that their organisations and business are any worse off.

On Friday, February 1, there was still an advertisement for the farmers' market for January 19, so clearly this advertising is not properly supervised. On Friday, February 2, the Civic Society, an organisation not slow to criticise others for such acts, had turned from gamekeeper to poacher and today, February 3, this was eclipsed by a much larger expanse of plastic advertising, for what I know not, as it was twisted by the wind and possible placed there without the permission of the authority's arbiter(s), but then this area is by association clearly for advertising.

Soon your villages may not need their notice boards, you could find your gardens and fine community buildings bedecked with advertisements of such a nature that would not be tolerated by the same authority without our town centre.

Oh where are those "Friends of Richmond" so vociferous once, so silent now?

J PHILIP L WELCH

Maison Dieu,

Richmond.

No response

Sir, - I have yet to read a response from Coun Weighell, the leader of North Yorkshire County Council, to letters about the dramatic surge in the council tax.

This will suggest to readers that Coun Weighell treats fair enquiries and criticism from residents with contempt. After all, he is the person accountable for spending £500m of our money each and every year.

In comparison, leading councillors of both Richmondshire District Council and Richmond Town Council depict a far more responsible attitude. They have a better appreciation of what local people can afford along with a clearer picture of each council's future finances.

That's more than can be said about Coun Weighell and his executive, seemingly lurching from one crisis to another. So come on Coun Weighell please organise replies so readers at least know that you exist.

RICHARD COLLIN

Pikepurse Lane,

Richmond.

Don't pay

Sir, - Regarding your reports and readers' letters about high council tax increases. What is everybody going to do? Pay these high increases and next year the same thing will happen.

It is time to stop government and councils telling us what to do. I suggest that nationwide each and every domestic and non-domestic council tax payer pays the same amount of council tax as this year plus two per cent which is approximately the rate of inflation.

Don't just sit back and say "there is nothing to be done". Get off your backsides and fight, refuse to pay. Can they put us all in jail? - no, something will have to be done to ease these high increases.

We need millions of pounds to back this protest. Write to me with your views to the address below.

CATH THOMPSON

Bay Horse,

Catterick Village DL10 7LP