Dave Carr’s article makes some very good points (see ‘Johnson’s energy plans – strategically flawed’). I just would like to add to the mention of onshore wind farms.
I live in a rural area in a shire county. Many rural poor and working-class people live in these areas. They have a lot more to worry about than the view from their windows, if indeed they do have a view!
My objection about wind farms is not that they spoil the view, but that they are privately owned on private land. There is no local or national democratic planning on where wind farms should be sited, no public ownership, and therefore no public control.
I have no problem with individual house owners saving on energy costs by installing solar panels. However, private landowners have hugely benefited in the past from government subsidies paid for by the tax payer. These subsidies were cut by the Tory government in 2015, which meant landowners were less inclined to invest in renewable energy. The government now plans to make £10 million available to developers of onshore wind and solar farms.
We need to nationalise the energy companies under democratic workers’ and community control. Then the production of energy could be planned and coordinated across the country in an environmentally sustainable, energy efficient and affordable way.
Heather Rawling, in rural Leicestershire
