Turbines on the Ouse Washes ARE a threat to birds - Eddie’s view is wrong

EDDIE Holden’s view that wind turbines are “no threat to birds” (letters May 17) is deluded.

It has been acknowledged that badly sited industrial commercial wind turbines do place many species of birds at potential risk of blade collision and disruption of preferred feeding grounds.

The Ouse washes are abundant with such species – swan and raptor being identified at being most at risk.

With wildlife in mind, the key to all wind turbine developments is the selection of sites that do NOT impact on the welfare or the ecology in sensitive areas supporting protected species of wildlife.

Wind turbines are in no way likened to quaint windmills of old. They do not mill or pump anything, they were constructed of brick or timber and stood 70ft or thereabouts and they added charm and character to countryside landscapes.

Industrial wind turbines are constructed of concrete, steel and carbon fibres with blades that encompass a jumbo jet with room to spare, a rotor speed of 170mph (at blade tip) and a height that shadows Ely Cathedral by some 153ft (total 350-400ft).

Villages around the Ouse reserves are constantly subjected to power failures or blips due to swan collisions into power lines, that’s why we have bird diverters.

My views are vindicated by further objections from Natural England, The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and the RSPB which rarely (seven per cent of applications) objects to wind farms.

Sorry Eddie, wrong choice of sites for turbines.

JOHN STONEMAN

Cambs Environmental and Wildlife Protection

Via e-mail

IN response to Eddie Holden’s letter last week - how wrong can he be?

I live adjacent to the site where the turbines are proposed and have first-hand experience of swans striking power lines that are about the height of the said turbines.

The power lines are in a field adjacent to the proposed site. These lines have bird diverters already on them but they do not completely solve the problem.

I know by seeing the result of dead birds under the lines every winter.

If the swans can’t see the lines after dark returning to their overnight roost what hope will they have of seeing the turbines?

Ivan Rayner

Days Lode Rd

Fodder Fen

Manea

Via e-mail

I KNOW from his past correspondence that Eddie Holden views most situations from a very one-sided position.

But to compare Fen drainage pumps to enormous turbine generators and a slender rotating blade to our huge cathedral beggars belief.

DG WEBB

Dean Peacock Court

Ely

Via e-mail