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Harborough MP holds wind turbine meeting

July 21 2009

Edward Garnier, the MP for Harborough and Shadow Justice Minister, held a meeting on Friday 17 July in Lubenham attended by Margaret Wright, the Chairman of the Parish Council and other local residents at which representatives from the Prison service and the Ministry of Justice were asked to explain their attitude towards the proposal to site three enormous wind turbines on land just outside the perimeter of HMP Gartree.

Speaking after the meeting the MP said: “Those at the meeting from Lubenham and I made it clear beyond doubt that the site in question was not a sensible place to put three turbines twice or three times the height of Market Harborough church steeple which would tower over the surrounding area. If you look at the anemometer there now and can see how tall that is – easily visible from south of the Lutterworth road – all you have to do is double that and you will understand how vast these structures will be.

“In addition to that they will cause immense damage to the local environment during their construction, produce remarkably little energy but use up a great deal before they even start generating it and look plain ugly. As Shadow Prisons Minister I am also concerned that they will lead to disturbances in Gartree Prison – it does not take much to set off trouble in our over-crowded prison estate and a flickering, rumbling, humming wind turbine could just be the cause of a riot. Let’s not take the risk. I made my views known in no uncertain terms to the men from Whitehall.

“I will be campaigning against the siting of these monstrous things on these fields and hope I will have the support of the planning authority in resisting their construction here.”