I RECENTLY had cause to make a journey to Hull.

I’m not asking for sympathy. I enjoyed the trip through the Wolds and all the way out to Spurn Point. And it wasn’t only the hills and blue sky that lifted my spirits – it was the wind turbines.

Standing benevolently astride the landscape, willow-slim and waving with the breeze, their gentle twirling is a comforting symbol of man’s ingenuity in the face of grave threat.

The oil may run dry, they say, and the promises of the frackers may be empty, but until the last breeze ruffles an English leaf or ripples a Scottish loch, there can be power for us all.

By contrast, our Vale of York seems denuded. The pylons shiver, exposed between scant woodland, as they apologetically carry soot-blackened electricity from the power stations that clutter the horizon.

The absence is conspicuous. The plains of Austria, Germany and France are all a-dance with renewable power. East Yorkshire and Cumbria have joined the ball, why must we wait so long?

If you too would like to bring forward the day, I invite you to visit yorkcommunityenergy.org.uk.

Richard Lane, Chair, York Community Energy, Frances Street, York.