Wind farm operators were paid £2.6m to keep their wind turbines idle in May, in addition to the £900,000 they were paid in April.  National Grid, the operator of the power network made the payments which are ultimately paid for by the consumer.

The power network development by the National Grid has not kept pace with the construction of wind farms as many are in Scotland and the larger demand for electricity is in England. The National Grid claimed the £900,000 payments in April were ‘exceptional’ and Charles Hendry, the energy minister also described them as an ‘anomaly’. Clearly not quite correct from either party!

Research undertaken by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) has revealed four energy companies were paid to switch off their turbines on 16 different ocasions in May. Seven wind farms came off-line on May 24 for a total of 69 hours costing the grid, but ultimately the consumer £613,000.

Scottish and Southern Energy was paid £1m to shut the 52 turbine Hadyard Hill wind farm for effectively six days in May.

Scottish Power was paid £720,000 for shutting three wind farms, including Whitelee in Ayrshire which is the largest onshore wind farm in Europe. This comes after Scottish Power announced a 10% increase in electricity prices last week!

Should planning applications and the subsequent construction of new onshore and offshore wind farms be put on hold until the National Grid can catch up?  On one occasion in May, infrastructure problems meant Scotland had to buy electricity from England while two Scottish wind farms were paid £34,000 to shut down. It seems the big energy companies who tend to develop these wind farms are making money from producing and selling electricity, making money from not producing electricity, and then increasing the price of their electricity to the consumer. The whole situation seems absurd.

The long awaited statistics relating to Hunting Act convictions in 2010 have now been published, clearly showing that this failed Act is now about poaching, not about hunting.

The statistics show 36 convictions under the Act in 2010, but only one involving a hunt registered with the Council of Hunting Associations. The rest were for offences, primarily poaching, that are not connected to organised hunting. Poaching has been an offence for many hundreds of years and existing legislation enables the Police to secure convictions for the offence outwith the Hunting Act.

The new Ministry of Justice figures take the number of people convicted between the Hunting Act coming into force in 2005 to the end of 2010 to 181, but only six of those relate to registered hunts. A staggering 97% of convictions relate to poaching or other casual hunting activities, including at least seven people who have been convicted of hunting rats.

The Hunting Act is being used almost exclusively by the Police to tackle poaching, lending a veneer of success-through-numbers to an Act that is now almost unanimously regarded as a dismal failure. Poaching was illegal before the Act and would continue to be illegal without it.

The MPs who railroaded the Hunting Act through in late 2004 acted out of spite and without any recourse to evidence or to the practicalities of what they were doing. The result is a piece of legislation that has comprehensively failed and these statistics hold a mirror up to that fact.

The Act, however, does continue to be a way for animal rights vigilantes to make allegations against hunts and waste Police, CPS and Court time, often at huge cost to taxpayers. No one takes any pleasure in the current situation. It is farcical and there is no case to be made that the Act is effective in any way.

Alice Barnard, Chief Executive, Countryside Alliance