Unlucky Heritage!

As expected the Government seems to be finally grasping the nettle over wind farms and admitting a lot of the onshore ones have been a mistake.  Two weeks ago the Scottish Conservative spokesman had said: “We appreciate that wind farms have a place, but the fact there are seven wind farm applications a day in Scotland proves this is a gravy train threatening to career out of control” and last week Energy Minister Greg Barker was even clearer:

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The rush to develop on-shore wind farms is “over”
“They have turned public opinion against renewable energy”.
“We put certain projects in the wrong place.”
“We are very clear about the need to limit the impact on the countryside and landscape.”
Future wind farms will be developed off-shore.

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It’s good news that the Government is indicating that the era of erecting onshore wind farms at almost any environmental or cultural cost is over. However, those landscapes and communities and heritage sites that have been left afflicted in the past few years can count themselves very unlucky for if the same developments that have blighted them were proposed today it seems they wouldn’t now be allowed. It seems likely that many of the onshore wind turbines that remain in beautiful or auspicious locations will now be seen by posterity as massive “mistake markers”.