THROUGH your columns may I alert all your readers who live on the Chilterns facing the A418 ridge between Aylesbury and Thame, to a huge wind turbine that is proposed to be built at Ford. Its hub will be higher than the Bucks County Council building in Aylesbury and its blades higher than Big Ben – 101 metres! It will be seen for miles.

The application goes against District and County Guidelines, the AVDC Local Plan and the Ford Village Design Statement. No prior testing was undertaken to ascertain in practical terms the amount of wind actually available in the area and this in spite of permission being granted to erect a wind measuring device (an anemometer). The application relies on computer modelling.

The ludicrous thing about the whole proposal is that the amount of energy it will create is very small, supplying just 120 houses if you believe Dinton with Ford & Upton Parish Council, or 350 houses if you believe the applicant. Wind turbines are notoriously inefficient in that they obviously do not produce energy if there is no wind, and have to be shut off if there is too much. There are considerable noise problems associated with these massive turbines and I also understand that this installation would have a negative impact on the local bird, bee and bat populations.

If this application succeeds, then many more will follow and the Vale would become littered with whirling turbines with the loss of amenity for everyone who lives here.

To my mind there is no way that the pitiful amount of energy generated by this device could possibly justify its dominant intrusion on to this lovely landscape to the detriment of thousands of people. If you agree, I would suggest you write to object to Mr W Nicholson, Planning Dept, AVDC, 66 High St, Aylesbury, HP20 1SD by the end of this month, quoting Application 12/01806/APP or email devcon@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk

Michael Trotman, Dinton, Aylesbury