Francis Macnaughton of Sanderspool Cross, South Brent, writes:

Richard Howell launched another personal attack on an individual concerned with local renewable energy development last week. He obviously trawled the internet to find the quotes attributed to Richard Buckpitt and selectively draw from them to try portray such landowners as motivated by something other than a desire for maximising the agricultural output from their property. However, he did miss out a critical part of the quote from last year's Farmer's Weekly where Mr Buckpitt also said 'The milk price now is the same as when I left school 25 years ago, and the returns to pay off that kind of investment, ie the slurry storage, just haven't been there. It's just not financially viable'.

Isn't that the whole point about why landowners who actually farm the land are now having to look to other forms of income to keep in business, especially against a background of increasing regulations and environmental protection requirements? If we, the public in general, put so low a value on the cost of producing milk locally then we cannot be surprised if landowners change to other ways of getting a return on their investment, especially if the government has seen fit to incentivise such a change through the feed in tariff and similar schemes. I suggest that Mr Howell spends more time instead looking up on the internet what all the politicians had to say about such schemes around 2006 - 2009 and taking them to task for the uncertainty and turmoil they have now created.

Mr Howell also remarks on arrival of the South Brent community wind turbine at Marley Thatch. From my own part in this project I would like to put on record that Richard Buckpitt and his father John showed Sustainable South Brent and South Brent Community Energy Society great patience and consideration, far exceeding what might have been expected in a commercial transaction.

Their personal commitment to this genuine community owned renewable energy venture was demonstrated on innumerable occasions and their support and encouragement has been a major contributor to the success of the project.