At this crucial moment in our county’s history, as Wiltshire Council decides a planning application for a monster 285-feet high wind turbine to be constructed close to Chapmanslade village (the first in Wiltshire), we hear news of yet another turbine collapsing suddenly and flinging turbine blades and debris over a wide area, reportedly up to half a mile away.

Several turbines collapsed or exploded in the UK in 2014, and now just two days into 2015 this one in Northern Ireland, some 328 feet high, has collapsed in a moderate breeze.

The implications are awesome, but to its shame the wind industry seldom publicises the full reasons for these failures, whether caused by human error, negligence or structural failure.

The Chapmanslade turbine will be just a few hundred metres from the nearest houses, and apart from other issues, on safety grounds alone the councillors should refuse the application. But will they?

The recently-approved Wiltshire Core Strategy makes provision for supplementary planning guidance on wind turbines, which could be issued by the council and which could provide for a minimum separation distance between a large turbine and a dwelling of 800 metres, in line with the situation in other parts of the UK. This would provide a measure of safety, which is surely a basic responsibility of the council on behalf of us all.

There is no sign that Wiltshire Council is willing to produce the supplementary guidance that would resolve this issue of separation distances, and I would ask anyone who is concerned to immediately contact their councillor to press for action. Only if members of the public make their views known is there likely to be any progress in what is a serious situation concerning public safety.

Ian Welch, Guernsey Mead, Heywood, Westbury.