E.on replace misleading wind farm images with toy pictures
Aug 7 2009 by Brian Daniel, The Journal
Last night, Mr Wakeling said the whirligigs used by E.ON appeared to have been inspired by a cartoon in The Journal on the day of our story on the ruling.
The drawing depicted a person having their photograph taken against a hilly landscape, holding a small turbine – which Mr Wakeling said E.ON’s whirligigs resemble.
The 65 year old, who lives at Berrington Lough between Ancroft and Bowsden, also said it appeared the company does not want to use an image of 115m turbines as it does not want people to see how large they would appear in the landscape. Ian Corsie, chairman of West Ancroft Community Association – which is leading opposition to the development, was speechless when he first saw the whirligigs.
He said: “It really is just extraordinary, you could not make it up could you?”
Last night, E.ON denied claims it did not want to use images of 115m turbines, saying there are photographs of bigger 125m structures elsewhere on its website. It insisted the image had been chosen simply to brighten up its website. A spokesman added: “How do you illustrate wind? You can just show its effects. We could show a tree blowing, in this case a child’s toy. There are only so many ways of representing that (wind) without people getting bored.”
E.ON’s application is to be decided by Northumberland County Council in due course.
