WEST Devon Tory Geoffrey Cox has welcomed an announcement by his party leader, Michael Howard, on wind farms.

Mr Howard said that a Conservative administrationwould change the planning rules so that the Government could not easily override local objections.

The Conservative Leader said Labour?s recent amendments to planning rules mean that local people?s concerns and objections were being ignored. The important place of local objections in the planning process should be restored, he said. He also pledged to reverse the Government?s reliance on onshore wind power to meet renewable energy targets

Geoffrey Cox said: ?West Devon and Torridge is threatened by a government plan for approximately 80 of these gigantic machines.

?The Conservatives have been consulting widely with environmental groups and others and have reached the conclusion that Labour?s heavy backing for the onshore wind industry is misplaced.

?We will continue the campaign to ensure that the new machines, which are 50 feet taller than those in Cornwall, are not built in a landscape utterly unsuited to them, on the unspoilt beauty of which so many in the tourist industry depend, with untested effects on those living close to them and for almost no gain at all in clean energy.?