AN OVERTON resident has accused a campaign group of using “wild scaremongering tactics” in its protest against building a wind farm.

Veronique Kerguelen addressed Overton Parish Council about EDF Energy Renewables plans to build 14 wind turbines at Bullington Cross, near Whitchurch. Dr Kerguelen, of Greyhound Lane, said: “This green campaign is one of misinformation that is unhelpful for the community.”

She said the anti-windfarm group Keep Hampshire Green, whose representative had previously addressed the parish council, was “not helping the discussion at all.”

She added: “It deserves a proper, rational assessment, not what we are starting to see.”

She said she was neither for nor against the plans, but could see inconsistencies in Keep Hamp-shire Green’s approach. She said: “Keep Hampshire Green are saying we shouldn’t have wind farms because they are paid for by subsidies, but then they are saying they should be put somewhere else where there’s more wind.”

Dr Kerguelen also said the group seemed to imply that industrialisation of the countryside would be more acceptable if undertaken by a British company and not the foreign-owned EDF.

She said all energy production received subsidy. Electricity would be in short supply in five years’ time, unless new sources to generate it were used.

Douglas Paterson, from Keep Hampshire Green, told The Gazette that the campaign took advice from a variety of specialists on wind farms. He added: “We have never said wind turbines ‘don’t work’.

“However, unless wind turbines are built on a huge scale over a very large area, their energy contribution is tiny.

“Even then, wind energy remains unreliable and expensive and can drive up carbon emissions elsewhere. “The question is, do we get good value for our money? “We believe wind turbines in Hampshire would be a waste.”