I WRITE in response to the proposal to site two wind turbines at Escrick Park and I offer some facts about noise and environmental disasters.

First let's talk decibels. Mr Clay asserts the World Health Organisation states that any noise above 30 decibels disturbs sleep.

Thirty decibels is the level of noise you would hear in an empty room. What the WHO actually says is that low frequency noise above 30 decibels may cause disturbance to sleep for a minority.

A spoken conversation measures about 60 decibels. The background noise of the countryside itself is usually between 30 and 45 decibels.

The decibel scale is logarithmic - a noise level of 30 decibels is therefore ten thousand times quieter than the sound of a conversation.

In this context, Mr Clay's comments may be thought unduly alarmist.

Secondly, some villagers claim the proposed turbines would be an "environmental disaster".

This must be a generational thing. To me, and I suspect to most people my age, an environmental disaster is what we will get if we don't change to more sustainable energy sources.

Rising temperatures and sea levels and more unpredictable weather are already with us.

It is understandable that older people want to keep the landscape looking the way it has throughout their lives - but we have to reduce carbon emissions.

It is the children of today who, in 50 years' time, will pay the price if we fail to act not those who are already old.

They, and I, will be long gone.

People are right to ask questions. Powergen must demonstrate that the proposed turbines are safe, but we do not so much inherit our world from our ancestors as hold it in trust for our descendants.

Coun Christian Vassie,

Blake Court,

Wheldrake,

York.

Updated: 11:38 Saturday, January 08, 2005