Letters: Turbine danger

I wonder how many wind farm sites are close to roads and crucial installations that can explode. There is a report form Cape Jarvis, southern Australia, of yet another wind turbine fire where fire crews could only work a kilometre away and watch helplessly as the the turbine burned.

Why are turbines of this height being allowed closer than this to housing and roads in Scotland? What I don't understand is the silence on this subject from Scotland's Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

HSE saw no problem with the Auchencorth wind farm application near Penicuik. It did not object when the 100 metre-high turbines were only 60 metres away from a road in the original environmental statement and 97 metres in the new layout when the recommended stand-off distance for that height turbine is 110 metres.

If a turbine fire had happened here we would have had burning debris falling on a road and a major gas overground installation. How many wind farms have been - or are about to be - constructed without a thorough risk analysis?

Celia Hobbs

Peebles Road

Penicuik, Midlothian