THE farmer at the centre of a controversial proposal to site a wind farm in the Den Brook Valley says he ?will not lose any sleep? over the outcome of forthcoming planning deliberations on the scheme. Martin Tucker, who farms at Crooke Burnell near North Tawton where five of the proposed nine turbines and the sub-station and access road would be sited, says he believes wind turbines could benefit the area, but it was now up to planners to make a decision on whether the scheme should go ahead. Mr Tucker is a sixth generation farmer, whose family have been at the farm for 130 years. He currently farms beef, sheep and mixed arable on the 460 acre farm, but says the current financial climate has forced him and many other farmers to consider diversifying. Mr Tucker described farming at the moment as an ?absolute waste of time?. Mr Tucker said it was against this backdrop that he reacted with interest when representatives of renewable energy firm RES contacted him about the possibility of siting turbines on his land two years ago. He said he believed in the long term, the use of renewable energy sources had to be increased. ?If we do nothing, that is all very well. We have got to think about the next generation.? Mr Tucker acknowledged he would financially benefit from siting the wind farm on his land. ?Obviously, we will be rewarded but I haven?t taken this decision lightly. There are pros and cons with it, but I feel there are a lot more positives.? Mr Tucker rejected the suggestion made by opponents that farmers who worked with developers to have wind farms sited on their land were greedy. ?I don?t think it is being greedy. It is being businesslike. Farming at the present moment is a sheer waste of time. I defy any farmer in the area that was presented with the opportunity to turn it down.? Residents in North Tawton and the surrounding area who want to stop turbines being built nearby have raised health fears and concerns about the noise levels of the machines, but Mr Tucker, who pointed out the turbines would only be around 800 metres from his front door, dismisses these fears. ?If there was any possibility of any health risks I wouldn?t entertain it. The opponents can?t substantiate any of their claims. They can?t come up with any evidence to back up what they are saying. As for the noise issue, we went to Northern Ireland last year and saw a new wind farm there and they were a lot quieter than the ones down in Cornwall.? Mr Tucker said he was not in agreement either with those who say wind turbines are a blot on the landscape. ?I personally like the turbines and think they are quite tranquil to watch. but I understand there are people who do not.? Mr Tucker said many people in the local area he had spoken to supported the plan for a wind farm. ?There are a few people that have been hostile but I have had a lot of good responses from local people. ?We have lived here for generations and we are not going to decimate the countryside, if anything we will put it back better than it was before.? The farmer said he was pleased the application was now lodged with the planning authority, who would make their decision on the matter. Mr Tucker comes from a long line of farmers, and although he said he had no way of knowing what his great great grandparents would have made of huge industrial windmills being dotted around the farm, other family members had supported the idea. ?My father was born and bred here. Sadly, he died earlier this year, but he was in his seventies and he was in favour of it. It is going to make the farm secure for years to come,? Mr Tucker said. The application by RES to build the wind farm was recently submitted to West Devon Borough Council and is expected to be considered early in the New Year. RES says the project will have a maximum capacity of 18MW, generating pollution-free electricity equivalent to the needs of more than 10,000 homes every year, or around half of West Devon?s domestic power consumption. But Maureen Thomson, of the Den Brook Valley Action Group, said the 120m high turbines would be visible from a wide area: ?It is going to devastate the whole of this area for very little gain. ?It is totally out of scale with all the surrounding villages and rural landscape. The area is described by the CPRE as one of the last three remaining areas of tranquility in the whole of England.? Mrs Thomson said as well as the visual impact on residents in Bow, Spreyton and North Tawton, opponents were also concerned about the noise the turbines would make when the blades were turning. ?It will affect not only people living here but also tourism, which is becoming the primary industry in the local economy. People will not want to come and see wind turbines in the countryside.? Mrs Thomson said she was pleased the uncertainty over the number of turbines had been settled as the developers had reduced the number of proposed turbines several times over the past year but had increased the height of the blades. The application is accompanied by a comprehensive environmental statement, including information on how the site was selected, the technical details of the project and the range of environmental studies undertaken.