I WAS interested to read Brian Pearman's letter stating that Lydney Town Council does not have an adopted renewable energy policy, since I had just been sent a version of it by their Executive Officer and informed that it had been adopted last January.

Reading the revised draft which has been hastily and belatedly appended to the Lydney Neighbourhood Plan (breaching NDP consultation guidelines), I can understand why town councillors may not have wished to publish it earlier.

The policy is a thinly-veiled attempt to limit the growth of renewable energy in Lydney, with a specific emphasis on deterring any wind turbines or solar farms from the whole surrounding area (irrespective of scale, location or local benefits).

This draft policy is out of kilter with the views of most local Lydney and Forest citizens. Local and national surveys have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of the public supports a growth in renewable energy, including onshore wind energy and solar farms. The reality is that some people hate wind turbines, some people love them, but most people do not hold extreme views.

They just want to see a sensible approach to developing our future energy supplies which includes renewable energy technologies.

The Lydney plan has many exciting and progressive ambitions for our town. Unfortunately, this draft renewable energy policy is not one of them.

We call on Lydney Town Council (and district councillors looking to develop a similar district-wide policy) to withdraw it and start again with a more open mind and a genuinely consultative approach.

Instead of adopting positions of prejudice against specific technologies and reacting against any significant development that is 'highly visible' we should take a more positive approach.

We need to look at the energy Lydney uses now and will need in the future. We could be doing more to attract external investment to help us insulate our homes and buildings.

We should be assessing the real renewable energy potential we have locally, and setting ourselves targets to generate more of our energy from these sources. We could and should be favouring schemes which offer community-ownership options and benefits for local people.

We think the people of Lydney (and the Forest of Dean more generally) deserve this sort of positive forward thinking on renewable energy.

Certainly they deserve better policy making than is offered by this draft 'anti'-renewable energy policy.

– Janine Michael, Whitecroft on behalf of Dean Community Energy Group.