18th of April 2012 - Blow Winter Wind

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18th of April 2012

Dear Sir/Madam,

BLOW WINTER WIND

I despair of the NIMBY attitudes exhibited by your anti wind farm correspondents (Scotsman Letters, 18 April).

Jack Ponton complains of noise in rural environments. But these are hardly silent as any visiting townie who has been rudely awakened by cockerels or church bells will attest. It is the nature of the noise which is novel - and country bumpkins will soon become as accustomed to it as are urbanites to the sound of road and rail.

Anent John Milne's complaints about despoiling the countryside, I am put in mind of the excellent television advertisement broadcast when IKEA first opened their store at Straiton. This showed the rural landscape being greatly improved by Progress in the shape of the iconic blue and yellow Swedish home furnishings emporium. In years to come, when every community has a local sustainable wind farm, we will laugh at the antediluvian views of those who sought to place a few marginally attractive picture postcard views over the economic well being of a nation.

Furthermore, it is precisely because Scottish Government civil servants care about Scotland as a whole that they are prepared to anger people like Greg Brown by ignoring the blind self interest of a few unimaginative locals who seem incapable of taking a long term view.

John Eoin Douglas