Maiden Speech

My first speech in the Council Chamber earlier this week. A bit nerve-racking, but it was on an important subject so I felt I should stand up and speak.

Glen Sanderson proposed a motion to ask the Council to gather evidence about the impact of wind farms on tourism. Belford is likely to face two applications for wind farms on the ridge above it just in front of St Oswald's and St Cuthbert's Way so the topic was very relevant. Almost a quarter of private sector employment in this division is related to tourism, and there can be few people in Northumberland who have not enjoyed Bamburgh, Lindisfarne, Budle Bay or the walks noted above.

I said we owed it to good planning decision making, to the visitirs and to our residents to find out the facts.

The motion was, after a couple of amendments, agreed and the job of doing the investigating passed to the Regeneration working group (on which I sit, which  is good).

It's good the motion was passed with relatively little party back-biting: but it's a bit sad it's necessary: it should have been a no-brainer for the Council to want to know this. The trouble is that over the last few years they seem to have been seduced by wind farms, hence the growing proliferation across the county.