Opinion: Suffolk debate shouldn't be dominated by trivia

They loosened the ridiculously restrictive rules governing onshore wind turbines.

Most experts agree that onshore turbines are the cheapest and most efficient way of generating renewable electricity almost anywhere in this country.

Yet for a decade this country has inexplicably rejected this energy bounty because of what seems to be a well-orchestrated campaign by a vocal minority.

A decade ago a group of residents of Laxfield almost went to war with a local farmer who wanted to put up a turbine some distance from the village.

His crime? He was going to make an £80k profit from it.

I thought I knew Laxfield pretty well from my journeys there as a child to Sparrow's grocery store - but I'd never realised it was such a bastion of Marxist-Leninism that hated the idea of farmers making a profit!

No one wants a turbine right outside their front door or close enough to their house to keep them awake at night.

But the big issue here isn't the sight of one in a field a long way from homes - it's the fact that if we don't do something about the energy crisis that is heading our way over the next decade the lights are going to go out!

Well-sited turbines in fields can add interest to the landscape and show future generations that we did try our best to do something good for the world.

My only criticism of the government's change is that it really doesn't go far enough - there really should be a presumption in favour of such a beneficial form of energy.

The fact is the world has to change. We're already seeing the effects of climate change. We cannot just go on the way we have in the past burning fossil fuels - and if we want cleaner energy it has to come from somewhere.

Onshore wind turbines must have a big part in that energy make-up.

Another area where protesters seem to have lost all sense of proportion is the row that has blown up about Manningtree station car park lights.

Manningtree station has been there since 1846. Its double-deck car park has been there many years.

Manningtree station car park was built many years ago. (Image: Archant)

Now the Dedham Vale Society has started whingeing about the lights in the car park extension.

What a farce! That part of the River Stour is very attractive - but it is not a "Dark Skies" area.

You stand at Cattawade at night and you have a glow from Ipswich in the north, Colchester to the south,  Felixstowe and Harwich to the east, not to mention the towns of Lawford, Manningtree and Mistley on the other side of the river.

The lights don't damage views of the area in the night - you can't see anything anyway.

When it comes to this, the Dedham Vale Society really ought to name itself "The Society for the Abolition of the 21st century!"

Maybe they'd like us all to start riding in Haywains and tugging our forelocks every time we meet our betters!

And we've seen one last example of people getting things out of proportion when there were complaints about staff at Aldi "searching" shoppers' bags in an effort to beat shop theft.

I shop at Aldi - and when I go there I take a "bag of bags" to put my purchases in. Last week the chap at the till asked me politely, almost apologetically, if he could look in there before he started. He explained it was a new anti-theft policy and everyone's bag was being checked.

I guess this is what people were describing as "being searched." I have to say it didn't worry me in slightest.

I had nothing to hide - and frankly if a two-second check like this cuts losses from shop theft that's fine by me!

Those who feel so worried that having a bag check implies they are a thief really need to think what's more important? A short check or £10 extra on your big shop as Aldi seeks to make up for the losses from shop theft?