NIMBYism raised its ugly head yet again last week at the planning meeting for Fengrain’s anaerobic digestion plant.

I hold my head in despair at what comments the objectors were saying. It ranged from the strange to the bizarre.

I only found out about the application a few days earlier. I spoke to Fengrain and have offered my help for free in any way.

I said to them ‘what you are doing is a good idea, but green energy is no longer popular anymore’. It’s a taboo subject for communities and councillors alike.

Objectors held up their ‘localism’ banners and councillors dragged the bottom of the barrel looking for ways of objecting. It was all very sad.

I dare say, Fengrain probably would have got a better response if they had put a planning application in for a concentration camp.

I lived for many years in Bridge Lane, Wimblington, and still have a 200-year-old house there, which I plan to return to. I was amazed how many objectors I saw from Bridge Lane who wouldn’t even be affected by the plant in any way.

The first thing any objector will tell you at any renewable application is “I am not against green energy, but”. Some reasons can be important, but often it’s the bizarre from “It will curdle my milk”, to “I have heard it makes owls fly upside down”. I have heard them all.

At one debate, an objector shouted: “At a certain speed of a wind turbine, it will cause your heart to stop”.

You can build as many sand castles as you want on the sea shore, to protect yourself against the incoming tide of climate change.

You can throw them out as many times as you want spitting venom at applicants on the wat.

But, by 2050 we are going to have to reduce carbon output by 80 per cent.

At the moment we produce two-thirds of our electricity by coal. Putting our heads in the sand will achieve nothing.

Sooner or later we are going to have to realise and resign ourselves to the fact, that to save our climate, we will have to foresake something.

Also, sadly I never got my chance to challenge MP Steve Barclay. But we know, he is one not for debating, more ducking and diving.

One thing, I think we all know, well the younger generation anyway, is that it’s just a matter of time.

Therefore, this was a hollow victory for the objectors.

The next generation will not look kindly on the mess you are creating them!

RICHARD M MOORE

Via e-mail