ANTI wind farm protester John Stoneman told a public meeting in the Fens that if permission was given for 26 turbines the owners could make annual profits of £6 million. I think people should realise we are not talking about wind farms- that s got too n

ANTI wind farm protester John Stoneman told a public meeting in the Fens that if permission was given for 26 turbines the owners could make annual profits of £6 million.

"I think people should realise we are not talking about wind farms- that's got too nice a feel to what they are really about," said Mr Stoneman. "A more accurate description would be wind factories."

Mr Stoneman was among 300 protesters who packed Marshland St James Village Hall to vent their anger over recently announced proposals for wind turbines to be put up in the village.

"I am sorry to hear your community and its environment is about to be 'turbinised', industrialised and hi-jacked by the wind industry," said Mr Stoneman.

"The impact on local landscape, skyline, wildlife and people is echoed nationally as this vandalisation of our rural way of life gathers momentum."

Mr Stoneman said the group behind the proposals, The Marshland Renewable Energy Consortium, proposes to stall 130 high wind turbines at a cost of nearly £50 million.

"After a commissioned life of 25 years, the Marshland wind factory will show a staggering profit of £156 million, and the most nauseating aspect of this grotesque amount is that fact that taxpayers subsidy up to 70 per cent of their construction," he said.

Villagers pledged hundreds of pounds to fund a campaign against the proposed new wind farm.

Campaigner Dave McGuffog, of Bourne Blinds, Wisbech, said: "These things are monsters.

"Twenty six of them would make it the biggest development in the East of England on acreage.

"I've never met anyone yet who is in favour of these turbines."

Mr McGuffog said two consultants employed by the consortium were at the meeting, but that they had failed to quell people's fears.

A spokesman for Renewable Energy said: "We have looked into the possibility of building wind turbines on our land and it appears that it may be viable to do so.