Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

  The devastating , tragic flooding and loss of life in Valencia , Spain……a truly beautiful city which I have visited several times……should serve to remind us of the extreme dangers posed by flash-floods.

      We in Wales, need to be very alert to the problems of flash-flooding. We have been caught out several times in the past.

   Therefore, how can the Welsh Government glibly talk of erecting a phenomenal 5000MW  of extra wind energy across Wales? It entails either 3846  1.3MW wind turbines 252 ft high, like those outside N.C Emlyn; 1666 3MW monsters 475 ft high like Pen y Cymoedd, Heads of the Valleys  ……or 1000  5MW leviathans  over 650 ft tall, which you won’t find on land anywhere in the world!!!?

   Wales is only 8015 square miles in area……so we don’t have the room for any of these ridiculous ruinous options……that will all power English cities!!

    They would all require the clearance of millions of forestry trees ,when the Welsh Govt is hypocritically talking of planting millions of trees !!???  They would also require hundreds of square miles of new tracks, roads and huge concrete foundations all across our unspoilt Welsh hills!!  Those hills are the catchment areas of all our streams, tributaries and major rivers like the Teifi, Towy, Taf, Aman, Rheidol, Ystwyth, Tawe, Nedd, Ogwr, Taff, Rhondda, Dyfrdwy, Clwyd, Usk, Teme, Severn and Wye….to name just a few!!

     5000MW of extra wind energy on the hills is bound to cause devastating flash-flooding right across the towns and villages of Wales…..plus ,downstream in large English towns and cities like Shrewsbury, Tewkesbury, Worcester,  Hereford and Gloucester.

  After all ! They will be replacing highly absorbent grassland, moorland and forestry in our high-rainfall hills with  non-absorbent , rapid run-off, gravel, tarmac and concrete…..on a truly vast scale!!  A real recipe for disaster!!!

No Welsh politician has even mentioned this!!

Yours faithfully,

Lyn Jenkins,