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Minister attacks wind farms

The Tory energy minister has condemned the "peppering" of wind farms across the countryside, insisting: "Enough is enough." John Hayes said the spread of turbines "seems extraordinary" and they should no longer be "imposed on communities".

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'Protecting our green and pleasant land'

Quoted in the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, Mr Hayes said:

We can no longer have wind turbines imposed on communities. I can't single-handedly build a new Jerusalem but I can protect our green and pleasant land.

We have issued a call for evidence on wind. That is about cost but also about community buy-in.

We need to understand communities' genuine desires. We will form our policy in the future on the basis of that, not on a bourgeois Left article of faith based on some academic perspective.

If you look at what has been built, what has consent and what is in the planning system, much of it will not get through and will be rejected. Even if a minority of what's in the system is built, we are going to reach our 2020 target. I'm saying enough is enough.

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