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the programme, Monday evening ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio 4, this week was about Lewis, the proposed wind factory and the RSPB, if you want to hear it, it is available on line until next Monday via the listen again link,

*21:00

19 March 2007
A controversial wind farm on the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis has split the local community, despite winning the approval of the Council for the Western Isles. Conservation groups including the RSPB are concerned that the 181 proposed turbines and their associated infrastructure will harm populations of rare breeding birds and damage peatland habitats. But with renewable energy at a premium and a welcome injection of jobs for the island, the scheme is an attractive economic proposition. Brett Westwood explores the difficult decisions to be made in shaping the future of Lewis's landscape and prosperity.*
from the beeb web pages,

I know this is a nature programme so that perhaps explains why it tended to concentrate on the effect of the wind factory on the birds, no where did I hear the ‘T’ word, Tourism, they spoke of jobs created but again no mention of jobs lost in the tourist industry, if Lewis wants to keep it’s women then it needs to keep it’s tourist industry because tourism employs a large female workforce, the jobs created were only during the building stage, there was mention of the surveys done, I’d like to know who does give their opinion in these surveys because I have never met one person who has been asked their opinion, the migrating Whooper Swans were mentioned, someone claims to have looked for them and said they couldn’t find many so do not see how it can be a problem, well they obviously didn’t look at the loch between Galson and Dell because they were there again as I have seen them every year since I moved to Ness, there was no mention of the carbon released when they dig up the peat beds,

they mentioned that land is owned by the community but they did not say that the Galson estate has only just come into the ownership of the local community, a community that does not want the wind factory but the go ahead was given by the previous private owners of the Galson estate,

I used to be pro wind energy but since I learnt that the main reason for wind factories is to sell green units to companies that do not intend to clean up their act, I am against them,

as for all those greenies who protested loudly about Mrs Tiggywinkles being killed, I haven’t heard one single word of protest at the disruption of wildlife habitat and deaths of hundreds of birds and small creatures, but I expect that’s because they are the very people this electric is going to on the mainland,

can you tell I was not impressed at the way the programme portrayed Lewis,

I can't quiet believe it but the radio has just played Joni Mitchell's 'they paved paradise' and the line I think is most appropriate is
'you don't know what you have till it's gone'