THE advocates of wind turbines need to think very carefully about the implications for wildlife before they claim the benefits of wind energy to the environment. The surveys of the doomed Alvington Court turbine showed disruption of bat colonies and a high probability of fatalities and displacement of birds particularly lapwing. Natural England's and other concerns were swept aside by the priority given to renewable energy. In addition to driving birds away from their natural habitat the consequences of fatal bird strike have been constantly underplayed.

The fatal impact of a white-throated needletail with a wind turbine in Scotland has raised serious concerns with ramifications far beyond the sad loss of a single, rare visitor. This individual bird was being very carefully observed and thus there was a far higher chance of a turbine impact being detected than is the case for most small birds.

Only a minuscule fraction of birds are intensively monitored in this way and if the movements and fate of many other individual birds were being monitored then what appears to be a rare event is likely to be much more common than we think.

It seems wind turbines are attracting insects for reasons not yet understood possibly as a result of the low-frequency droning sounds they emit. These insects are attracting bats, swifts, swallows and martins with fatal consequences.

The green energy industry is big and powerful and has tried to influence the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). Locally, wind prospectors, with a toxic mix of business and green credentials, are dismissing these problems but in an area as sensitive as the Severn Estuary there has to be more serious concerns about these developments on bird populations. We need much more sensitive research on the impact of turbines on wildlife and particularly birds before more wind farms are allowed.

Notwithstanding the above, the opinions expressed in the few letters you have had canvassing for wind turbines does not match the public response I am meeting every day. There is an overwhelming resistance to seeing industrial-sized wind farms in the Forest of Dean.

Let's be honest, the only reason they are being promoted is because they can be lucrative for developers and give the "nicey-nicey" yet false belief of tackling climate change. Recently the government has announced new measures to help local planners resist the turbine invasion, protecting the landscape and residents from the threat.

Sadly, what the government has failed to do is reduce the vastly subsidised feed-in tariffs that make these schemes rewarding for a few while householders endure inflation-busting bills.

Ultimately our com­petitive­­ness as a country will suffer for years to come unless this is addressed. Developers will continue to push the bounds of acceptability while there is easy money to be made.

If ever there was need for a swansong.