Author Michael Morpurgo fights against wind turbine in Winkleigh’s ‘War Horse Valley’
Author Michael Morpurgo has opposed plans to build a 251ft (77m) wind turbine in the idyllic Devon valley which provides the rural backdrop to his book, War Horse.
Campaigners in the area have already complained that a rash of such renewable energy projects could destroy the nascent tourist industry which has grown up around the First World War epic, which has been turned into a successful stage play and hit Steven Spielberg movie.
It is the second time the writer – a freeman of West Devon – has actively campaigned by speaking out publicly against a wind power scheme.
Mr Morpurgo says he “vehemently” objects to the proposals for a site area between the villages of Iddesleigh and Winkleigh, an area in which he lives and last year described as an “oasis of peace and wonder, a paradise still far from the madding crowd”.
“It is not simply that I object to this application, which I do most vehemently, it is the principle that if we allow this to go through, where do we stop,” he wrote.