FOR centuries, the Minster has been the focal point of our landscape. Sadly, this situation could soon change.

If city planners approve, five massive wind turbines will be built at Copmanthorpe, on Askham Bryan College land.

The turbines will rival the tallest on the British mainland. At 145m tall, they will be more than twice the height of the Minster.

Wind turbines are widely considered to be expensive, inefficient, noisy and unfriendly to birds and the environment.

Ultimately, the people of Copmanthorpe, Colton, Bilbrough and Askham Bryan will pay the greatest price for the imposition of this development. Their properties will be devalued overnight.

If built, these turbines will dominate York’s landscape and skyline for the next 25 years. It begs the question, will York, one of the finest tourist attractions in Britain, be prepared to sacrifice its Minster and landscape to accommodate these turbines, which will generate less that one per cent of nearby Drax or Eggborough power stations?

I suggest it is time for supporters and opponents of the Wheel to come together and oppose this far greater threat to the pastoral beauty of York and neighbouring villages.

Name and address supplied.


• CHANTAL Purchase, in her letter (The Press, February 11) was so close to writing a very good argument against the way skilled writers can “twist” information to paint anything in a good or a bad light.

I, too, read the article in the Daily Mail about the rare-earth (neodymium) which is used in wind-turbine generators to provide the magnetic field necessary to produce electric current.

The article painted a quite horrific picture of the squalid conditions the miners exist under.

Again, Ms Purchase hits the nail on the head when she says “many everyday items in our homes are likely to have some link to a polluting factory or mine”.

“Excellent arguments,” I thought. Then she had to go and say: “Our use of fossil fuels causes climate change.”

Well, even the most august scientists haven’t dared to say that. There are far too many imponderables.

Unfortunately, Ms Purchase, we had many windless days during the pre-Christmas cold spell and those much vaunted wind farms generated not one single watt of electricity.

Oil and gas will be in reduced supply and may be reserved for essential users.

Go nuclear – you know it makes sense!

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge.