SOURTON Parish Council has received more than 270 letters about a controversial proposal to site a wind farm on land close to Dartmoor National Park. At a special parish meeting on Wednesday April 13 to discuss the Yelland Farm plans, clerk to the council Michael Taylor said a total of 272 letters had been received about the application. Of these, Mr Taylor said 264 correspondents said they were extremely concerned about the visual impact these turbines would have on the environment. Ninety-five letters expressed concerns that wind turbines were an ineffective and inefficient means of energy production. The potential impact on tourism any turbines would have was mentioned in 78 of the letters the council had received. Mr Taylor said 58 letter writers thought letting this application through would create a grave precedent, and in the words of one letter, the effect would be to ?put a necklace around Dartmoor, in no time at all.? Local resident Graham Brown warned those gathered at Sourton Village Hall. ?Once the genie is out of the bottle, you won?t be able to put it back. We all know what wind turbines look like, there is no fascination with them.? Paul Coles, from Inwardleigh, said alternative forms of renewable energy should be considered. He pointed to the Mary Tavy hydro-electric station which generates energy from water which used to go to the old mines, which has been running for 73 years and can provide 2.6 Megawatts to the National Grid. Thorndon Cross resident Richard Leonard said: ?They should not be called wind farms, they are wind factories.? He added that insulating 485 houses would save the same amount of energy as is produced by just one wind turbine. ?It is the taxpayer who will pay for these extremely inefficient and expensive turbines,? he added. However, Andrew Clements from South Tawton spoke in defence of wind turbines. ?It?s a step in the right direction. The biggest problem we face is climate change. I wouldn?t want to see wind turbines unless they were needed, but we have to face the danger of climate change. If we don?t do something now, it will be too late,? he said. A vote was taken at the end of the meeting with a ratio of approximately 20:1 opposed to the proposed scheme.