THEY KILL FISH, DON'T THEY?

No, they don't.

My next-door neighbour went on a fishing trip to Upper Tamar Lake in Cornwall last week. He set up his bivvy on the shore of the lake and spent three relaxing days fishing and gazing at a windfarm.

He showed me the photos he took. The turbines were about a kilometre away from his pitch.

'Were they going round?' I asked him.

'Oh, yes,' he said. 'I'd sit there in the mornings and just watch them.' Like so many, many others, he'd found idly watching the wind turbines turning strangely hypnotic; therapeutic, even.

'Could you hear them?' I asked him.

'No,' he replied. 'But I had a chat with the bailiff about them. He was doing his rounds, so I pointed to the turbines across the lake and told him we're supposed to be getting some of them up our way. Only there's a chap up in our neck of the woods, I told him, who's convinced they're going to kill all the fish in his lakes.'

The bailiff laughed: 'Well, they ain't killed bugger all here!'

The Tamar Lakes are an outdoor activity and holiday centre. In addition to tea rooms and restaurant, the Upper Tamar Lake boasts a campsite and nature walks. Watersports take place there, or you can just fish, or hire a rowing boat for a peaceful day on the water.

Are the visitors, the holiday-makers, the walkers or fishermen bothered by the presence of these turbines? No.

Have the turbines blighted the landscape at a popular leisure facility? No.

Have they done any damage? No.

Are they noisy? No. Do they kill birds, fish or mammals? No.

Have they made any difference whatsoever to the tourist trade? No. As with many other places, Cornwall has discovered that normal people actually like these wind turbines. They're impressive, reassuring, inspirational things. They do a fantastic job, noiselessly generating the cheapest electricity going. They enhance the natural landscape.

What's not to like?