ENOUGH of the hype and ideology surrounding wind farms: the warning bells should be ringing out loud and clear.

At Ireleth in Cumbria the people are in a legal clinch with the wind farm operating company. Their ultimate goal, through the courts, is the complete dismantling and removal of the wind farm.

Wind power developers go to great lengths to convince residents that a site will not cause any problems to the local environment or the people who live within it. The bitter awakening comes later.

But technology is moving on. More effective methods of producing alternative energy are coming thick and fast and the sacrifices made today in the name of wind farms will have been made for nothing,

Wave and tidal energy are coming to the fore and Britain is perfect for it. The Seaflow project off the coast of Devon is well on target to market its tidal energy turbines by 2006. Tidal energy is produced non-stop and with absolute predictability, unlike wind energy.

A look at the wind energy scene in Germany is revealing. After positive public opinion in the early days, years of experience has brought a huge swing against land-based wind farms. Today there are 800 action groups working in opposition to them.

The German power giant EON, serves almost 2 million customers in England via Powergen and Midlands Electricity. Its chairman recently said he felt the first big energy black-out in Germany would be due to that country's reliance on wind energy. Sudden gale force winds would automatically shut down all wind turbines and back-up conventional energy plants would not be able to cope.

In Germany consumers pay well over double the unit price of electricity compared with England in spite of huge EEC and government wind energy subsidies.

At Scout Moor, an area of outstanding beauty would be ruined by the presence of 26 giant wind turbines. The natural skyline would be obliterated and a century of heritage would be sacrificed. It is extremely rare anywhere in the world to find such a large, peaceful and unspoilt countryside area on the doorstep of a major city.

IRENE FOWLER, Bury.