LIBERAL Democrat shadow trade and industry secretary Malcolm Bruce visited Winkleigh airfield last week to be briefed by local politicians and opponents of a controversial biomass plant planned for the site.

Mr Bruce was joined by West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett, prospective parliamentary candidate David Walter and their North Devon Liberal Democrat colleague Nick Harvey MP for the visit last Thursday.

Mr Bruce used the visit to outline the Liberal Democrats? energy strategy: ?We are very strongly in favour of renewable energy as a party.

?The whole idea should be to have small sustainable plants, rather than big industrial ones.?

Mr Bruce said the party faced ?a real difficulty in that the government take all the headlines on renewable energy?.

But he said all too often this was really a ?box-ticking exercise?, regardless of whether the schemes which came forward were realistically achievable or not.

Mr Bruce concluded there were alternatives to the type of scheme being proposed at Winkleigh.

?There are other sorts of technology that are proven and that need smaller sums of money to get off the ground,? he said.

Mr Burnett said the firm behind the application ? Peninsula Power. had ?walked into the DTI one day and came out with a grant for £11.5-million?.

Peninsula Power Ltd insist the project which would produce 2.3 megawatts of electricity, uses cutting edge WINBEG technology which has amassed thousands of hours of continuous use in US trials.

The site meeting was also attended by Winkleigh businessman Steve Leahy and other members of the DUST pressure group (Devon Under Serious Threat) and local residents.

DUST members were angered by news last week that a public exhibition about the controversial scheme may not be held until after a planning application has been submitted.

Peninsula Power said their commitment to holding a public exhibition had not changed, but their timescale may require the exhibition to take place after a planning application has been submitted to Torridge District Council.

Mr Burnett is due to hold meetings with representatives of the Government Office for the South West and the South West Regional Development Agency on the issue in the coming weeks.

DUST holds its next meeting to update residents on their progress in Winkleigh Village Hall on August 19.