10/06/2012 Sunday Politics Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

The anti-turbine policies of Good afternoon, welcomed the Sunday

politics. As councillors in Lincolnshire clampdown on new wind

farm developments, is it time are more authorities to say no at any

more turbines? And Dolly's Reading Project expanse

in the region, should our children be reliant on it? It was only a few

short years ago that we mailed our first book to the children in

Rotherham. Our guests, Clive Betts and Andrew

Percy. Let's talk about wind power. Is it time to put a limit on the

number of new wind turbines in the countryside? I do not think we

should have a limit, we need more wind power and wave power, and more

tidal power and solar-powered, and more renewables in general. The

alternatives are to keep on using gas and oil, and we know there is a

limit to how much we can produce in the world, demand is rising from

many other countries, prices are going to go up. And if you think

where oil and gas come from, the Middle East and Russia are not the

most stable countries. We have got to develop renewable energy.

Chancellor is preparing to cut the subsidies to wind farm developments,

what happened to his claim of being the greenest government ever?

want to continue that. We want to get of the dependency on coal and

gas, and get on to renewables. We should build more nuclear as well,

I think personally. We are developing the offshore wind farms,

but we have to accept we have got large numbers of wind farms onshore

already. In East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, we have hit our

target for 2020. People are legitimately saying, we have taken

our fair share, perhaps enough is enough. When they start looking for

which -- new site, green energy companies might be crossing

Lincolnshire of the list. The county council has adopted one of

the most aggressive anti-turbine policies of any authority in the

policy to stop what has been described as an unrestrained

invasion. Worthy you look, you can hear them

and you are aware of them. The noise is worse at night, we will

not have a window open. If it is a sunny evening, you get the shadow

flicker from the blades going through the House windows and

across the lawn. For Martin, turbines are a sensitive issue.

Despite spending time and money fighting them, two had been put up

collect -- next to his house in Lincolnshire. Would you choose to

buy a property with turbines as close as that? I think they look

awful, they are expensive and inefficient and it was not for the

developers potential greedy landowners, we would not have this

infliction of forced upon us. week, if his views were echoed.

Campaigners wrote their point on a lorry, while in the building behind,

county councillors agreed measures to block future wind farms and

fight any being built too close to homes. We have done our share,

delivered our target in Lincolnshire, and we do not want it

to become a dumping ground for wind turbines. In Lincolnshire, we are

unique, we have houses spread across the whole county. I do not

be -- and do not want to be in a position where some people have a

huge 140 metre structure outside their house. This new policy could

pose a problem as the UK needs to clean up its energy supplies. Four

renewables Experts, wind place -- wind plays a bigger role. It is a

very clean and efficient way of producing energy, it is established

technology, it is important part of creating a renewable energy mix we

need to keep the light on in Britain. From boiling the kitten --

cattle to turning on lambs, we all used electricity. -- from boiling

the kettle to turning on a light. But we are facing an energy gap as

coal powered stations are turned off. Gas is currently the cheapest

way of producing energy but there are warnings prices could rocket in

the future. Onshore wind is next but turbines divide opinion.

Nuclear sparks fears, call costs more and can be dirty, and offshore

wind is the most expensive but advocates say prices will drop. For

Anna, at finding the cheeping sort -- cheapest source of energy is

vital. She is recovering from cancer cannot work. More than 15%

of her income goes on energy bills. She is officially in fuel poverty.

As the bills keep rising, it is getting harder to find the extra

money. When we had a cold snap here, I had to borrow some money from my

daughter, just to pop an extra fiver in to see us through till the

next pay-day. If your bills went up to pay for a different type of

energy, would you be able to afford it? No, I would be cutting down on

things like food. The very basics. I would probably have to move.

Rising bills are not the only concern. Last year, two of many at

-- �12 million were paid in wind farm subsidies in Lincolnshire

alone. Four critics, their -- that is too much. I think blackouts are

a risk in the future. The government has misguidedly decided

that wind power is the solution when it is not a solution. It is

there because of its cost and lack of rad -- reliability, it is

driving fuel poverty. Places like Lincolnshire, low wage economies,

they can least afford high energy bills. We are warned time is

running out to find a way to bridge the UK's energy gap. If wind is to

be part of the solution, the government will have to work hard

to silence the growing Corus of critics.

We have been joined by Helen Rimmer, the regional campaigner for Friends

of the Earth. You heard in that report, concerned about fuel

poverty, people worried about paying their bills. If we continue

to subsidise the wind farm industry, people's bills will go up even more,

went they? There is a lot of misinformation about wind power. If

you look at the reasons behind energy bill rises, it is down to

rocketing gas prices. Also energy inefficiency of our housing stock

which the government is not doing very much to address. Wind power is

not a cause of energy bills rising, it is the fossil fuel treadmill

that we are stuck on. But wind energy, green energy generally is

putting extra money on our bills, isn't it? According to Ofgem, it

put on 2p a day, compared to guess which was one of and �50 for the

annual bill. -- compared to gas. Which was �150. The cost of wind

farm energy is coming down rapidly, and it will come down more as

economies of scale get bigger. should the Government's strategy be

when it comes to onshore wind farms? Wind energy is working. It

is always -- already powering 500 homes across the country. We have

to increase the capacity, the benefits will be in cutting

emissions, and in the economy, and the thousands of green jobs that

will be created in Newt wind industries across the country,

particularly in the north of England. It sounds like Helen once

more wind turbines, what you say to that? We take a sensible view. It

is the case that in renewable energy is subsidised by the

taxpayer and bill payers. Everyone is honest about that. I do not have

a problem with that because we have to move away from our dependency on

fossil fuels, I accept that point. What we should be asking ourselves

is what other alternative methods of generation can we be looking at?

We need to be looking at carbon captor and storage. Helen is wrong,

the of -- the government is doing an awful lot to tackle energy

inefficiency in our homes. We have done pretty well on that in recent

years, and I pay tribute to the other party when they were in

government for that. There is a lot we can do. What people are saying

to me is, we support this diversification of the energy mix,

but it cannot all be one way, we cannot pepper the home of Lord --

Yorkshire and Lincolnshire with wind turbines without having people

having a say. Do you think it new developments should be railroaded

into our countryside even if local residents do not warn them? There

are inappropriate places for turbines but in the end, we will

have to have more of them. We need the alternatives, we need a wave

power and tidal power to be developed, and solar power. We need

nuclear as well. You cannot exclude wind power, it is a very important

part of the future of the energy mix so you cannot say we are not

going to have any more wind turbines. We have got to be

sensitive about it but we are going to need more. We asked -- also need

a consistent long-term policy from government. It keeps changing its

policy, so when we do put in wind turbines, what happens is the parts

and manufacture or come from abroad and that is what has happened from

abroad. We have imported the spot on Denmark. If we had a consistent

long-term policy we would manufacture these parts in the

country. Can you understand why people are suspicions of wind

power? You see these turbines, they are often not going round. If we

have other carbon three nuclear sources, nuclear power has been

suggested today, why can we not be pumping money into that? If you

look at opinion powers -- opinion polls around wind, it is about 60%

is support. None of that is near their homes. It might be down to

the way developers engage with communities we should not have been

done as well as it should have been done. They need to engage with

communities. Countries like Spain and Germany, there is a large --

much larger proportion of energy for budget -- Becker produced by

wind, there is higher community ownership.

Dolly Parton is known for her two greatest assets, I am of course

talking about her singing and acting abilities. What did you

think?! The world's most famous country-music star has also been

praised for her educational charity which helps children increase their

reading skills. It is four years since dollars's programme came to

Yorkshire and now it has arrived in one of Bradford's poorest housing

estates. Snake in the trees? You and I just

four years old, these children in Rotherham a love books and reading.

They have had a helping hand since birth, and it has come from the

unlikeliest of people. Four years ago, in a blaze of publicity, Dolly

Parton came to Rotherham. Look at that beautiful hair?! Not as the

world's most famous country singer, but as an ambassador she -- or her

idea about boosting skills for children under five, posting each

one a book a month. This week, her Imagination Library library sends

out its 500,000 book. Four it was only a few years ago we e-mailed

our fat -- it was only a few years ago week mailed our first book. We

have got a long way to go. As we celebrate the master in, I wanted

personally thanked our local sponsors and Palmers that work so

hard to make this work. -- partners that works so hard. The idea came

from Dolly Parton's own impoverished up bringing in East

Tennessee. Launched in 1996, it spread to communities across

America, bent Rotherham council heard about it and invited her to

bring it here. The idea is simple. From birth, parents are encouraged

to register their child and every month, they are sent a book in the

post. The first book, the introductory book is the tale of

Peter Rabbit. This has a little for word on it from Dolly Parton.

parcel is personally addressed to the child. They can keep and build

up their own library and it does not cost the family at any. We have

looked at the profiles and compared those children who are receiving

anti-turbine -- Imagination Library books to those who are not, and in

the area of literacy, there is a 5.2% difference in performance

which is really encouraging. I have always enjoyed looking at books

with my children, and when Dolly Parton was doing it, I thought, was

it just a publicity stunt? But now I think it has been fantastic for

them. Once upon a time, there were three billy goats gruff.

Canterbury estate on the edge of Bradford wants to be the 31st

community in the UK to start a Imagination Library scheme. Like

the rest, they know it will be a struggle to raise the sponsorship

for the �2 per month per child costs, but the organisers believe

that with some studies showing one in five homes here do not have a

single book in the House, it is one -- worth the effort. Books are

expensive. If you are of limited income there are difficult choices

to be made, and books can be seen as a luxury. This is a means of

getting books into homes where they might not normally be able to

access books. There are many that find it astonishing that after

decades of government and other home-grown initiatives, so many

communities are turning to a scheme set up by Dolly Parton to improve

the reading skills of our children. But a lot of people know this but

Andrew Percy is a country music fan, he was singing along! He is also a

teacher and you have taught primary-school children, what do

you make of this programme? I hope it gets more people interested in

new country, we need more of that! It is a brilliant programme. The

kids who are receiving this are doing much better, in literacy

skills. We would like to see this sort of programme expanded across

the country. The key thing is getting kids at home reading with

their parents. I knew from a kid I used to teach, if their parents

spent the time going to go -- books with them, they did better in

school. There was a worrying statistic in that report, one in

five of the poorest households in Yorkshire do not have a single book

in their home, what you make of it? It is very worrying. Let's give

credit to Dolly Parton and Rotherham Council for pioneering

this, well done to them. I would be worried about those households

without the books in them, the books come through the post, do

they still believe -- read them to the children? I am worried there

are still parents who would be worried themselves because their

literacy is not very good and they were never read to by the Rev

parents. What we have also done in this country is develop Sure Start

centres to encourage parents to come in and work with their

children to get into the habit of reading. The tragedy is, in the

first three years of this Parliament, there will be �1.5

billion cut from these centres. All of -- over half will have a

reduction in service. It is a great scheme but at a time when all these

cuts are going on to children's services, they could damage those

families. It depends what local councillors to mind -- decide

themselves. In my area, they have taken out costs in senior

management levels to protect services such at that. It is a

cheap point, we know the public finances where they are but they

have to be reductions. Councils can manage this manage this. When you

have got to cut a quarter of your budget, you just can't take that

out just senior management. Come to East Yorkshire and we will show you

have to do it. The allegations have been coming

thick and fast for Baroness Darcy, the latest is that the Jewsbury

born peer failed to declare a shared business interests with a

relative who accompanied her on official visit to Pakistan. The

Hull MP who referred her to the police things she is now more

likely to be out of the path for -- cabinet and the embattled Jeremy

Hunt. He has chosen to sacrifice the Baroness but he is protecting

Jeremy Hunt, I suspect the truth or all of this will come out in due

course. As the body of 20 year-old private

Greg Stone from East Yorkshire was repatriated, it emerged the

Yorkshire Regiment may be facing cuts. Defence secretary Philip

Hammond confirmed whole units could be lost or merged.

And they were amused! Politicians from across Yorkshire and

Lincolnshire ignited beacons and took part in the celebrations to

mark the Queen's diamond jubilee. Andrew Percy, what you make of that

claim by Karl Turner of that David Cameron is trying to sacrifice the

Baroness to save Jeremy Hunt? a mate of mine, he is playing a

political game. The to situations are different, they are completely

separate. Mixing the two together seems a little cheap. That is not

true. The baroness has been referred on two point, one on

expenses and one on a potential breach of the ministerial code

which is what Jeremy had has been charged with as well by politicians

in the House of Commons raising concerns about his behaviour. It is

interesting that Jeremy Hunt is seen as one of the posh boy club

members along with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, he is

protected by David Cameron but when it comes to the baroness who is not

a member of the posh boys club, she is immediately referred for an

inquiry. What makes me laugh about all of this, the one thing the

Labour doing is saying, we have to do something about the baroness.

The moment the Prime Minister does something and refers to, they pop

up saying, isn't that disgusting? Jeremy Hunt, his appointed special

adviser said 150 e-mails, but he is as far as well for his special

adviser. We are not saying he is guilty, we are saying they should

be a proper inquiry by the poise of -- peasant appointed to inquire

into ministerial breaches of code. So the point is, one is related to

a special adviser who lost his job, this is a far -- an issue related

to personal Macias. Both are good at -- ministerial codes, one is

referred a one is not. We have got to stop throwing this posh boy or

argument around. One of your MPs did it! It was Nadine Dorries!