The public inquiry into erecting Ascendant on Cold Law has concluded and the Planning Inspectorate must now decide its future.

I attended on behalf of the Keep the Wannies Wild group throughout, and was horrified to hear it argued that permission should be granted because, due to its windfarms, the Wannies are not wild.

The Ray Windfarm lies north east of Cold Law, Green Rigg to the south west.

Locals opposing the windfarms reluctantly accepted them because renewable energy is good.

We were assured they were temporary, inconspicuous, and that we could still enjoy our rural surroundings.

How shocking to hear that in planning terms, The Wannies is now an industrial, not a rural landscape!

The applicant said the turbines are “an intrinsic part of the character of the landscape as it now exists”, and have “eroded any potential sense of remoteness”.

The Wannies are no longer wild, it seems.

Far from reducing our carbon footprint, by accepting windfarms we inadvertently helped to desecrate our landscape, paving the way for harmful development.

The “Wilds of Wannie” is a saying whose meaning readers will understand from music and folklore. Wind farms have spoiled that.

We were told that to argue that the Wannies are wild is “untenable”. The baseline is lowered.

Northumberland beware! Think twice before you accept the seemingly innocuous windfarm, because worse may follow.

Given our green ambitions, the planning process must change; installations should not lead inevitably to building that would not otherwise, be permitted.

Renewable energy should not be a gateway to over development of the countryside.

ANNE PALMER

Kirkwhelpington