“Don’t turn 'shire into Britain’s scrap yard”

Plans to build hundreds of wind turbines, a giant 20-acre power station and the erection of hundreds of miles of power cables through the Severn Valley have horrified Montgomeryshire’s highest profile resident, who has joined calls for a public enquiry.

 

Campaigners say they were “blown away” by a phone call out of the blue from TV weathergirl Sian Lloyd who lives between Newtown and Welshpool.

 

And now the celebrity has offered to do whatever she can to boost the campaign which has gathered momentum over the last week after power giants publicly revealed the scale of their Mid Wales project.

 

“I feel a mixture of passion, frustration and total impotence on this,” Sian told mywelshpool.  “Jonathan (husband) and I walk around the Mid Wales countryside all the time, and increasingly it's becoming an industrial landscape. I genuinely believe that most people don't actually realise the extent of the devastation going on here. It is heartbreaking as Montgomeryshire is one of the most beautiful places in Britain.”

 

Sian’s husband Jonathan Ashman has been researching the issue and has found huge discrepancies between what the power companies say windfarms produce and what the hard scientific evidence say they produce. And it has enraged Sian.

 

“They don't even work in cold weather for goodness sake! During this winter it has been proved that they produced next to nothing. Don’t turn Montgomeryshire into Britain’s scrap yard.”
 

And she has vowed to do whatever she can to support local protesting groups like STOP and HALT.

 

“We, the ordinary people of Mid Wales, CAN make a difference and it's about time we turned round and said enough is enough and stop destroying our beautiful countryside.”

 

Campaigner Marie Carrigan received Sian’s call.

 

“It came from out of the blue!” she said. “Sian was so passionate and well informed about the issue. It will be an honour to have her as an ambassador for our joint efforts to fight these proposals.”