Wind farm poll.
 

According to a poll in this weekend's Accrington Observer, 77% of people are in favour of the wind farm, and only 23% are against it. Results which certainly aren't reflected in the letters page of the paper.

The proposed development will be on Oswaldtwistle moors, and consist of 24 windmills, each of which will be 130m/426 feet high. (Blackpool Tower is 158m/518 feet high.)

It will be interesting to see if a poll on Accy Web reflects the findings in the Observer, as the results will, and are being used by the company, EnergieKontor, who are based in Yorkshire, to get the proposal past the planners.

What do we think?

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I'm surprised the Observer can see Accrington all the way from Rochdale. ;)

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What a sight it would be, but this is how thing are thease days but think it will have to put cambra,s near them because they will get vandalised with the yob,s

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They put some up on the hills north of Stirling and being white they stick out like a sore thumb. We may need them for the future but lets have em a colour that blends in. Will be an eyesore thats for sure though if the hooligans get out of hand tie them to a vain and let em spin for a spin.

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I dont know - havent made my mind up yet and so cant vote. Hows that for sitting on the fence or wind turbine?

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I've voted against the proposal, as I think it would spoil an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Apparently British waters extend twelve miles of our coast. Stick them out in the North Sea, and no one will even see them.

I'd just like to point out, that the resulting power created will not specifically benefit this area. The electricity will be sold on to the power companies, and then on to us.

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Unless we have a wind mill placed every three feet, we will never produce enough power to satisfy our needs from wind mills alone.

We are lucky, we have 9,040 miles of coastline in the British Isles. More should be being down to harness the power of the tides, and produce hydro-electricity.

I'm all for finding new substainable sources of power, but not if it means blighting the beauty of our landscape.

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I am all for renewable energy but what will be the effect on the globe if we reduce the winds by using wind power to turn windwills and, reduce the tidal flows by using that energy as well?

Windmills must interfere with the weather systems. Maybe not yet but as w build more and more.

I would be all for it if people within a certain distance of wind farms got a 10% reduction in there electricity bills.

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I think that I have read some newspaper article recently which said that local councils get some sort of annual payment from the owner of the wind turbines.

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I have found the link
Do windfarms wreck lives? Stephen Moss investigates | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited
Gayle supplied it in the other windfarm thread. It is way down near the end of the long article

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Interesting to note that the Daily Mail are opposed to wind farms.

Prehaps I'll call my old mate Paul Dacre, the Editor, to send up a photographer, to capture me chained to the diggers.:D

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I think they look modern and dont bother me and all this stuff about noise pollution i think is rubbish because i can hear it however maybe if you went so close then you may be able to hear something so thats why i voted for the turbines. However i know a few friends and family who dont like them and one member of the family loves birds and alot are killed each year from the turbines.

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Aaaw bless, looks like you may be pelted with bad eggs and tomatoes Garinda according to your polll results. Never mind honey, will bring you refreshments and a cleansing wipes to ease the discomfort .. :D

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Free salad, and a bed bath?

I'll definitely be doing it then.:D

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Be careful, I can drive a digger :D :D :D

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Why doesn't someone design these wind turbines as homes as well, then they could serve a dual purpose, surely the noise factor could be overcome, the'd be ideal ones ex, as they are miles from anywhere:D.

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You'd have to be a size zero super model to live in one of these.

Plus the stairs would be a ******.:D

http://tyler.blogware.com/windbig112201.jpg

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I was thinking more in terms of putting a ladder at the back, and then she could live on top of the turbine and annoy that poor beggar.:D.

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how many wild birds are these things going to kill .theres a couple in the west of scotland and a relation of mine says all you find at the bottom of these things is dead birds plus you can hear them in the dead of the night:confused::confused::confused:

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well if those that crap on my car are killed- suits me fine.

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yes good idea but better out at sea

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Think this is probably a matter of economics davo .. getting out there for maintenance would be expensive, and much more viable that the 'owners' are close to the source.

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Yorkshire company.

Lancastrian wind.

Therefore stick 'em in Yorkshire.:D

http://www.mykp.co.uk/assets/_____red_rose.gif

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EnergieKontor UK Ltd has already built one at Monkwith (East Riding) and is planning another in Yorkshire at Withernwick.

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I was Yorkshire born Margaret, and as yet have never heard of either of these two Monkwith and Withernwick, that's maybe why they are thinking of shoving these monstrosities on Oswaldtwistle/Haslingden moors.;)

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Monkwith, East Riding of Yorkshire
Withernwick, East Riding of Yorkshire[City/Town/Village]&searchp=newsearch.srf&mapp=newmap.srf

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i went pass some of these wind thingy the other day, and they dont look that bad!
we have pylons and i think they look worse than them!

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Here is the map link I posted in the 'Windfarm Anyone' thread
Map of United Kingdom | Multimap.com

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Handy map that Margaret thanks, Iv'e put a short cut in my favourites will have need of it again.;)

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Wind Turbines Are Not Welcome (from This Is Lancashire)

Hurrah!:)

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Since new houses are desperately needed and it is best to avoid flood plains and agricultural land, there is always Oswaldtwistle Moor - I think I would prefer a wind farm

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33 to 7 so far in favour of them. Looks like the obsever WAS right.

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Yes, but since both Hyndburn and Rossendale Councils, as well as our MP, are reportedly against the proposed wind farm, the results of public opinions may not matter.:)

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It never does these days.

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It's like all the things that are,"not in my back yard", unless they are affected they don't give a damn

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think of the good things with these windfarms,.....my washing will dry in no time..:D:D.if its not raining!!

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Just resurecting this old thread because I got a letter last week from the energy company proposing the turbines - EnergieKontor. They are still in the process of trying to put wind turbines on the Oswaldtwistle Moors and they are holding public consultations on

11th May, 2pm - 8pm at Oswaldtwistle and Church Cricket Club
13th May, 2pm - 8pm at Accrington Town Hall

If you have an opinion either way, you should probably go down and see the displays and talk to the people.

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Is it true that the company EnergieKontor has, in the typical German quest for greater efficiency, designed the turbine blades in the shape of a giant swastika?

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Ban the things!!! Let's have more nuclear power stations and loads more coal fired ones too!!! Good dirty energy is what we want!!!

Only joking. I think they are ok and good clean energy. Everything we do will result in loss of habitat and possible death for some poor creature from building projects to food growing. If this site is deemed to be ok what's the problem?? To be more effective the turbines need to be higher up on a hill where the wind is stronger. It's not like it's a designated AONB or National Park. The majority of people will not even know the location and will not see them purely because they don't venture out that way. Ossy is about 2 miles away as the crow flies and there are many false horizons. Apart from the pub who'll be in the vicinity?? Sheep and walkers/fellrunners etc to name a few. They aren't ugly in any way either.
Someone mentioned Hydro-electricity. Yep good point. But there'd be a lot more devastation from the production of the place and unlike windfarms they take a whole lot more maintenance.

An ever increasing population means ever increasing housing stock and therefore ever increasing power needs. Just where do some people think it comes from?? Hamsters??

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I think you're under the misassumption that all hydroelectric power needs to produced be on land, using great big structures, such as dams, wheels, etc.

It can easily be produced off shore, using tidal power, with very little effect on the environment, or the landscape.;)

As someone with exquisite aesthetic taste, I proclaim these windmills ugly, wherever they are sited.

End of.

:D

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Yes Brian.:D:D

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Go for it genius....with your exquisite aesthetic taste you'll change the world.

Then you'll come back to reality :rolleyes:

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I have no plans to visit Church.;)

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Can't vote on this one ... but I did support the establishment of the wind farm on Wolfe Island .... (it's the largest of the Thousand Islands/Milles Illes, about a fifteen minute ferry ride from Kingston) .... it will be up and running this month ... changes the look of the view, but doesn't destroy it .... and it was placed well away from the flyways that the migratory birds use .... looks kinda neat.

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According to radio lancashire news , This has now been past , and will go ahead soon !

Re: Wind farm poll.
 

'TWELVE 120-metre high turbines are to be built on Oswaldtwistle Moor after councillors approved the controversial plans.'

'Although Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe moved for the wind farm to be refused, councillors instead voted to approve it by 13 to eight. Earlier, a dozen councillors had been forced to leave the council chamber because of their involvement with Hyndburn environmental charity Prospects.'

'Under councillor guidelines, they were forced to declare an interest as the charity stands to gain around £5million over the 25-year life of the wind farm, due to a community fund pledged by the developers, combined with potential match funding.'
Oswaldtwistle Moor wind farm approved by councillors (From Lancashire Telegraph)

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Well we won two World Wars, but it now looks like the Germans have won the right to begin their invasion of England.

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At least they wont be to far from a POW camp :D

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For anyone who didn't see the programme if you type 'Timewatch The Germans We Kept' on YouTube, you can watch the programme about the POW camp at Stanhill/Knuzden.

Here's the first part of five...

YouTube - (1/5) Timewatch the Germans we Kept World War II

Re: Wind farm poll.
 

Thanks for posting the link , fascinating ,

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There are thousands & thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of wind turbines installed, or about to be installed.
Now i have always believed that energy cannot be created or destroyed, therefore to generate X amount of energy from a wind turbine X + energy must be taken from the wind (the + being the inefficiency of the turbine). Surely by taking so much energy from the wind we must change the wind patterns and therefore initiate climate change. Perhaps I have got a total misconception of the whole situation, just hope that someone can explain this to me.

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I can't see that being much more of a problem than urbanisation, which affects localised temperature change etc, or the amount of high buildings there are in the world.

The weather in Lancashire will still come mainly from the west, and be wet.

:D

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wind turbines given council OK but Halo would spoil our best asset?

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H.B.C. aren't the only ones to 'benefit' from a bung, whoops...subsidy, in way of thanks for the windmills.

SamCam's father exploits Labour's green subsidy with wind farm which nets £3.5m per year | Mail Online

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I'm all for renewable and sustainable energy, but when we have 12,500 miles of coastline in this coiuntry, and just as much power could be harnessed off-shore, out of sight, and without blighting our beautiful countryside, something stinks.

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Besides all the off-shore sites for possible wind farm locations, we also have 12,500 miles of tidal waters, and unlike many other countries, very little is being invested in hydro-electric power.

If it moves, which tides do, there is power there waiting to be used, and we won't have to see ugly eyesores, higher than Blackpool Tower, in the middle of areas of outstanding natural beauty.

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I for one don't think they are an ugly sight, and the swishing sound quite relaxing in my view.

They have got to be considered far more artistic and relaxing than this monstrosity.

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/352924-post1.html
:(

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i also don't think there that ugly, ya aint seen jaysay.:D also to bung em in the sea, would surely cost much more n therefore to me be passed on to us oiks no doubt.

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Aesthetics are of course subjective, and we all like, and dislike, different things.

So we'll have to agree to disagree.

I am yet to see a wind farm that I find pleasing on the eye, even in Burnley!

In a natural environment, any man made structure 130 meters tall, and with a blade span of 122 meters, I find jarring, and ugly.

I'd find it equally unbalanced, and out of scale, if they were to build a 30 storey tower block on Blackburn Road, surrounded by mainly two storey houses.

As for costs. We may have 12,500 miles of coast line, but the land it surrounds is some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

It was economically viable to mine oil and gas from the North Sea, sustainable energy sources, from wind or tidal movement, will be relatively low. There'll be no need to pay individuals the millions of pounds in subsidies, that are currently being paid to land owners now.

I also think it's a national disgrace that we haven't invested heavily enough in renewable energy sources, and it is foreign companies that are coming to Britain to harvest the wind's power...and to make extraordinary, long term profits.

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that i agree with, fact is we aint,so fer me owts better n nowt.

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Up at Dundee last year we were staying in a Hotel & got quite chatty with a Lad who deals with these Wind power firms & he suggested looking at the firm called "Quiet Revolution" they are making in roads into the British Market, but they don't do the massive things they have smaller more subtle gear. You can see them at Fleetwood.


quietrevolution | vertical axis wind turbines | small wind turbines | wind turbine manufacturer

Re: Wind farm poll.
 

I'd just like to point out that I've nothing against windmills per se.

It's their scale, in relationship to their surroundings, I dislike.

I was brought up by a dad who had a keen interest in renewable energy.

As well as building our first swimming pool in the early seventies, which was heated by solar panels he'd designed and made himself, we were probably the only house in Lancashire to have electrically powered lights in the black outs, also in the seventies, because we had a twenty foot windmill on the top of the garage, cobbled together from church pews, wheelchairs, and lengths of drain pipes.

It might not have been aesthetically pleasing, my mum certainly thought not, but at least it was in an acceptable scale, and smaller than the house.

It became quite a tourist attraction for a while, much to my mum's horror.

:D

Tidal power can be harvested at actual sea level, and wind farms designed for off-shore use can be floating structures, which can then be anchored, and/or moved as needed. Built on land, and towed to where the sites were.

We should be investing in technology to produce our own renewable enegy industry. It could create thousands of jobs, and provide much cheaper power in the future, rather than subsidising foreign companies, who then sell the harvested power back to the National Grid, at whatever grossly inflated prices they see fit.

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yes but would we have been happy with the winfarm on the coppice?

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'...a dozen councillors had been forced to leave the council chamber because of their involvement with Hyndburn environmental charity Prospects.'

'Under councillor guidelines, they were forced to declare an interest as the charity stands to gain around £5million over the 25-year life of the wind farm, due to a community fund pledged by the developers, combined with potential match funding.'
Oswaldtwistle Moor wind farm approved by councillors (From Lancashire Telegraph)

The next time the coffers are short of another £5 million quid, anywhere's a potential site.

Still, for those who think they're pleasing on the eye, at least they'll be able to watch the pretty windmils from the Clayton End, if Stanley aren't playing that well.

:rolleyes:

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Oh gosh, here's my chance to be a nimby.

Oh my goodness horrible grey things stuck on the coppice how dare they have they no respect? Do they not know that the Coppice is sacred Ground, held hallow by all those locally that know where the bodies are buried?

Still on the plus side, we can bury anymore a little bit deeper When they are putting the footings in for these eyesores!

I know they try to get us to go green but I only thought that meant drinking 16 pints of bitter in 3 hours on a Saturday night, I didn't realise it would effect me in any other way.

Well it seems I'm not the nimby type, I would welcome them up there, they will help keep the town cool when Global warming hit's in.

Truly, though, I see no objection to them being up there, instead of some useless flying saucer idea that was bandied about a few years ago.

At least it would be a statement that, yes you keep nagging us about what we need to do for the future and we are prepared to do our little bit.
We could get the authorities to paint each blade a very bright colour and from a distance it would look like a crowd of kiddies have been busy building sandcastles on the beach at Blackpool.
:)

With a few old discarded pallets we could even disguse them to look quite pleasant. See, more green stuff recycling old wood, it's a plus, plus situation.

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I don't care if I'm in a minority.

They are ugly, and an eyesore, because of their scale in a natural environment.

Plus I have greater regard for my own opinion, when it comes to judging what's aesthetically pleasing, than anyone else's.

:D

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Absolutely right, of course you have, there, there, now calm down and don't do an andrew!
:D

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Don't get too giddy.

Or I might have to cover you with a pretty chiffon cloth, so you appear less harsh on my delicate eyes.

;)

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I think I'd look better in that other stuff, is it called Gingham?

Anyway don't get carried away just because you think you might have me in check, Mate!::eek:
http://www.fashionmista.com/images/r...gham-dress.jpg

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That's better.

You were warned.

Now my aesthetc sensibilites aren't affronted.

:D

http://alexmorrisroe.files.wordpress...6/afblack1.jpg

Though your wallpaper still grates.

I will have to cross that bridge of beauty another day.

:rolleyes::D

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Is the black one, one of you designs Garinda:D:rolleyes:

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If clients were wealthy enough, and flew me out first class, I'd run up a burka, no bother.

;)

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Oh Garinda, how I love you when you are trying to change the majorities mind about something .. bit like that movie ... sure you know the one about the jury.

You know I love these wind farms ... they may seem disproportionate to the ground level .. 122 metres, but lots of electricity pylons/towers are too .. nobody complains about these, and they are ugly. We are such a small country, and structures like these are always going to be in the sight of the population unlike other countries... e.g. Palm Springs runs mainly on wind power generation and contains approximately 4,000 windmills. They even run tours !! :D As you say is subjective, but they take my breath away.

YouTube - Wind farm outside the palm springs amtrak station

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Katex, Re. Palm Springs , been there more times than I can remember , couple of points , all the land in and around Palm Springs is Native American owned and any development is built on land leased from the various tribes (bit like the ground rents on terraced houses in Accrington) and as such is not liable for any form of Federal or State taxation on investment or profits.
The area where the windfarm is situated is at the bottom of a desert valley where nothing has grown for a thousand years, the only wildlife are the thousands of rattlesnakes and the occasional jack rabbit, situated between two mountain ranges the valley bottom acts as a natural wind funnel (the heat rising off the desert floor creates a 'vacumn' which pulls the cooler air in from the west) .
The video is also a bit misleading as to mentions the windfarm is next to the Palm Springs railway station leading to the impression its downtown , the railway station is a least 6 miles from downtown . ;)

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Turbines ...... Any day soon. - Rossendale Online

if you have a nosy at that link you'll see photos of the wind turbines being delivered page 3 onwards .. going through Edenfield ...

can i ask how are they going to get the turbines up there ..

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well we have to agree to disagree on that, whereas you would run one up,i would run one down.:D

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12 Angry Men, the film from 1957?

I'd rather be Spencer Tracy, in Judgement at Nurenberg.

Can I? Can I? Pleaseeeeeeeeeee?

:p

Honestly, I'm under no illusion that I'm in a minority, and have no desire to change anyone else's mind on the subject.

I'm just recording the fact that I find them an ugly blot on our natural landscape.

I'm yet to hear a defence of their appeal that will even make me ponder for a moment, and change my mind that they aren't the equivalent of a puss filled, weeping wound, on the face of the Venus de Milo.

Nor have I been swayed by any argument that there aren't cheaper, and more environmentally friendly sources of power waiting to be harvested, and profited from.

I might not have succeeded in 'winning' this case, but I leave the courtroom with my honour intact, and my head held high.

Happy in the knowledge that the majority were wrong, and that 'simply following orders' is no defence for acceptance, and that I was ultimately...right.

(Cue credits.)


:D

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My Granddad Knew Hans

Re: Wind farm poll.
 

If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, then probably the wind isn't blowing.

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Or its blowing the wong way;)

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Is this something to do with China ? :D

Jay, I really do like you matey but you need to proof read your replies, that or get your fingers in sync with your thoughts mate. :)

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I was talking about China :tongueout