t is not often that I agree with everything that is said by our elected councillors.  However; the letter from Richard Leppington (Review, July 18) is an exception.

I could not agree more with his comments in general. This is especially so with regard to his last paragraph regarding AEE Renewables.

They are offering financial windfalls to the local population which to me sound a little far-fetched.

Consequently I did a little research.  It would seem that they are doing this on an extremely large-scale not just here in the Forest.

If you Google the company at http://www.companycheck.co.uk">www.companycheck.co.uk. It makes you wonder what is going on and just who is behind these companies. 

Look at the references to other companies on the page. Maybe Google one of the directors .

How many directorships can one person have?  It might make you wonder whether these promises of windfalls in their thousands are just smoke and mirrors.

Have a look at the reports on visual impact, water run-off, reflection etc. on the Forest of Dean website.  They have all been commissioned by AEE Renewables. Nothing really strange in that and they all come out well in favour of the project.  Again no surprises there.

But shouldn't there be some sort of independent assessment?

Finally, it might be useful if the council planners were to consider discussing this with planning professionals in other parts of the country to find out what is happening in the outside world and remembering who it is that pays their wages. It is not a foreign company with an office in London.

We the residents do not want this solar farm there in that beautiful green area when there are brown field sites around – near Lydney docks, or the Ministry of Defence site at Ashchurch which is due for closure. Or what about on the Coleford Towers site?

I am not against renewable energy but do not want a repetition of the windmill at St Briavels which can easily be seen as a blot on the landscape from the train coming into Lydney from Chepstow.

If the people of the Forest do not start to stand up for themselves on matters such as this it will be too late – it is almost at that point.

– John Nicholls, Lydney.