I READ Jeff Williams’s letter last Saturday with some amusement. He takes a sarcastic view of the air festival, negating its benefits and trying to compare its attributes with the proposed wind turbine farm.

While not being a great fan of the air festival myself, I am amazed at his argument which doesn’t stand up in the face of the real facts.

The air festival will attract around 300,000 visitors to the area and a boost to the local economy; the Navitus scheme will result in a significant decrease in visitors and losses in employment in the region (Navitus’ own figures).

Mr Williams complains about the noise of the planes (for three-four days) against the year-round disturbance of the turbines (refer to John Yelland’s excellent and authoritative article in the Echo on August 19 for the true picture). And as for pollution, yes there is a small amount over the show’s four days but then, as Dr Bratey pointed out previously, there is serious scientific worry that wind turbines will themselves cause an increase in CO2 emissions.

The increasing amount of evidence shows that the Navitus scheme will not provide the expected amount of energy, will harm the local economy and will cost the UK taxpayer huge sums in order to line the pockets of the French and Dutch shareholders, who otherwise would not be able to finance the venture. There are other much more efficient ways of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and provide the reliable energy that will be required in the future.

G Smith

Drew Close, Poole