Many have objected to the prospect of living in the shadow of a wind turbine. Not so Dr RICHARD MURGATROYD, who lives in Golcar with his partner Melanie Griffiths and their six- year-old twins Frances and Leon. In fact he supports a Green Party campaign to develop wind power in the Colne Valley. Here Dr Murgatroyd, who teaches history and classics at Huddersfield New College, gives his reasons

THE Examiner has reported that another proposed wind farm scheme had been delayed, this time in Denby Dale.

This comes hard on the heels of the decision to block windfarms in Cumbria and Oldham councillors refusing planning permission for wind farm on Castleshaw Moor.

Opponents of wind have claimed a victory for the environment. The irony is that, unless we increase production of renewable energy through sources like wind power, climate change will alter our environment forever.

People often get irritated by environmentalists' doom-laden prophecies but man-made climate chaos is already upon us.

Extreme weather, melting icecaps, plant and animal species wiped out, falls in food production leading to hunger for millions in the Third World.

And things will get worse if we don't cut the amount of carbon we are pumping into the atmosphere.

Last year a UN panel of internationally respected scientists warned that burning fossil fuels (coal, oils and gas) was leading to global warming and climate chaos.

They urged government to dramatically cut carbon emissions and do it quickly. That is why wind power is so important. It is abundant, reliable and forever.

The Government has estimated that onshore wind could provide 80% of our energy needs.

We can do our bit in Kirklees and should welcome innovative local schemes. Green campaigners in the Colne Valley have estimated that fewer than twenty 1.3 M/W wind turbines, occupying 1km of marginal farm land, would generate enough power for all 10,000 households in Golcar, Linthwaite, Slaithwaite and Marsden.

Such a wind farm could be built within 12 months of planning approval. The likely cost of about £25m, could be recovered by selling "clean" energy back to the National Grid. Britain is the windiest country in Europe and peak production is in winter when demand is at its highest

In other words, wind power works! Denmark already gets over 20% of its energy from wind.

Anyway, what is the alternative? Wind is far cleaner and cheaper than nuclear, which produces waste that will remain deadly for thousands of years. Until someone finds a solution to the problem of radioactive waste it would be irresponsible to build more stations.

Renewable energies would make our country less reliant on imported gas and electricity. Available gas and oil supplies will be insufficient to meet future demand. That is why prices for power have been rising.

We tend to assume that secure supplies of energy will always be there on tap, but as the people of Marsden recently learned to their cost, this should not be taken for granted. Accidents happen and it is in our interests to become as self-sufficient as possible.

Of course wind power is not the only answer. For example, Kirklees and other local councils have introduced some worthwhile recycling and energy-saving measures in recent years. As a society we waste a ridiculous amount of energy and other resources. Similarly we can develop other types of renewable energy like solar and wave power.

But the various schemes rolled out so far have been too small-scale to cut carbon to a sustainable level. The great advantage of wind power is that it can be up and running quickly and is relatively cheap.

No wonder opinion polls regularly show that just over eight out of 10 people are in favour of wind energy, with less than 1 in 10 against and the rest undecided.

Yet a vocal minority object passionately to wind power and have proved scarily successful at blocking or delaying new schemes. This is not always a case of Not In My Back Yard as a number of powerful myths about wind technology have become widely believed.

First, wind turbines are not unbearably noisy. Advances in technology mean that well- designed and sited wind turbines are not loud enough to cause a disturbance to anyone living just a few hundred metres away. There are clear rules on the siting of turbines and strict noise standards.

Second, there is little evidence that wind farms seriously damage wildlife or interfere with farming. The RSPB support wind power and farm animals and crops can be safely raised underneath turbines.

This leaves the worry that wind farms will spoil the countryside. Obviously this is a matter of taste.

Surely common sense suggests that climate chaos will have a far, far worse impact on our magical Yorkshire landscape than some temporary wind farms?

It is time for the vocal minority to wind power to provide credible answers to the most urgent questions of our age: If not us, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?