WHILE it is excellent news that our local planning committee has rejected the Yelland wind farm application, we should be aware that this is just an early battle in a long war. In the case of Yelland itself no doubt there will be an appeal and we will proceed in due course to a public inquiry. In the wider context, Devon County Council aims to achieve within the county 96 megawatts of electricity from on-shore wind farms by 2010. At present just two schemes have received planning permission: Bradworthy with a stated capacity of 3MW and Higher Darracott (4MW). That leaves 89MW to find within the county, which means there are approximately 25 Yellands still to be built. The message is that a wind farm is likely to be coming close to you at some point over the next five years. These monsters will undoubtedly despoil our countryside while their contribution to lowering global emissions is questionable to say the least. Sir Martin Holdgate, a former chief scientist to the Department of the Environment, was quoted as saying last week: ?We shouldn?t sacrifice our landscape on our crowded island. Wind doesn?t make sense.? We are already at the eleventh hour to make a difference. Let us stand up now and make our opposition known at every level of government, whether national, county or local. It is surely now or never. Mary Spear Highview House Thorndon Cross REFERENCE the story, A big NO for wind turbines proposal (Times, May 26): As two families visiting the Okehampton area over half-term, we?d like to say that we don?t find wind turbines unattractive. In fact, we see them as an elegant, encouraging sign that positive and practical action is being taken to tackle climate change, the biggest environmental threat the planet faces. We enjoy the area for green activities such as walking and cycling. We?d enjoy it even more if it was also being used to harness the wind. Penny Walker and family Roy McGowan and family Winston Road London, N16 9LR AT the height of the controversy surrounding sources of renewable energy, could the powers that be explain why no use is made of the very large (and continuous) supply of renewable energy represented by Meldon and Roadford reservoirs? The insertion of generating turbines into the low level outflows of both these bodies of water would give a source of very low cost energy, which would not of itself interfere with water flow down stream. J C Hindson Woodhouse Farm, Hatherleigh MAY I take Issue with your headline, ?A big NO for wind turbines proposal?? The application for turbines on the Yelland Farm site may have been rejected by West Devon Borough Council?s planning committee, but it can hardly be called ?a big NO?. The application was refused on one issue and one issue alone, visual impact, the stronger technical reason that it was contrary to the Structure Plan Policy was withdrawn on the advice of the county council. All the other reasons put forward by Okehampton and Dartmoor Against Wind Turbines (ODAT), and others, were dismissed by the planners, and the dismissal ratified by the councillors. The councillors could have overridden the planners? reasons and reintroduced other objections, but they did not! The best that ODAT and your newspaper can claim is a home draw. Issues such as tourism, noise, health, bird damage, bats, inefficiency, etc. are now out of the equation as far as this planning application is concerned. Visual Impact vs the commitment to provide alternative energy is now the only issue. In view of the decision to approve, at appeal, the development at Scout Moor; (refused on similar grounds), the borough council planning committee has merely delayed the building of these turbines, added costs, (which both the tax payer and the developer have to support), and delayed the amount of CO2 free energy available. K L Crawford 1 Hillcrest South Tawton l The ?big NO? headline reflected the fact that councillors rejected the proposal by nine votes to one ? Editor