We bumped into David Pugh, leader of the IW Council, at the Big Green Picnic and grabbed an interview with him, covering quite a few different subjects, not surprisingly with a lot of discussion centering on green/eco issues.
Inevitably wind farms came up.
Wind Farms On The Island
The fact that the blades for wind turbines are produced on the Island by Vesta, but there are no wind farms on the Island is widely noted, and indeed got one of the strongest reactions from the audience at the Eco Island Conference.
An application to build one at Wellow was turned down at appeal about a year ago.
Cheverton Down: Change to a larger wind turbine?
David Pugh revealed that there was currently planning permission for three small wind turbines at Cheverton Down, between Brighstone and Shorwell.
Where the discussion got even more interesting, was where he spoke about possibly altering the current planning permission to allow for a large wind turbine site.
From what David Pugh said, it looks like there will be Wind Farms coming to the Island, “I’ve made it quite clear, if we’re to be an Eco-Island, we have to have some on-shore Wind turbines.”
He knows that it’s not going to be an easy ride, saying he, “realises that it will involve some difficult decisions of where we place them.”
He stated that his approach was to “need to look at it as if we were cut off from the mainland,” questioning where the power would come from.
David Pugh raised the spectre of a nuclear reactor on the Wight, which could make it more a glowing green Island than green Island, “Do we want a Nuclear powerstation as was proposed for Newtown a few decades ago or wind turbines up on the hills?”
It’s clearly not as stark a decision as that, but it does draw attention.
Have a listen to the interview for yourself …
[audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/david-pugh-wind-turbines.mp3]
We faded out the end of the interview as it trailed into discussions about schools.
THWART – Wellow Wind Farm
Yes2Wind – Cheverton Down
Cornwall Light & Power Company
1st Image: Benleto’s Photos
2nd Image: .Martin.
