Sir, The Border Telegraph website has recently carried two 'news’ stories about Banks Renewables sponsoring Hawick Rugby Club and Peter Scott Knitwear. These items appear to show the wind farm developer in a very positive light, as no doubt their PR company intended.

They give a very distorted picture of the apparent support for the company. The headline 'Borders Business backs wind farm training investment’ is interestingly ambiguous as 'business’ could be singular or refer to business in general and will no doubt have been interpreted as referring to business in general by some casual readers.

It is not surprising that companies, organisations and individuals who stand to gain financially will support wind farm applications and allow themselves to be used in publicity. I am disappointed that The Border Telegraph allowed these 'stories’ to be 'reported’ in this way without, as is normal good journalistic practice, giving alternative views.

The beneficence of wind farm developers is understandable when we realise that their sponsorship is a small part of profits they are likely to make from the public subsidies which these developments attract.

As the secretary of Hobkirk Community Council within whose boundaries the development will take place, I can assure you there is little support for, and much opposition to this development. The development proposes to erect 15 turbines of 132 metres reaching almost to the height of Ruberslaw. These huge turbines will dominate the area and destroy the view from Carter Bar, many people’s first view of Scotland. The turbines will also be sited within 800 metres of houses and adjacent to a falconry which their presence would put out of business.

At a public meeting in Bonchester Bridge, nobody spoke in favour of this development and many spoke against. Hobkirk Community Council voted five to one against the development.

I hope you will take the opportunity in the near future to carry the views of those who are campaigning to preserve our landscape which is threatened with a rash of large developments. One angle might well be the growing frustration of many against the way the Scottish Government handles these large developments and their lack of transparency compared to the the process used by Scottish Borders Council I am, etc.

Clifford Griffiths, Secretary Hobkirk Community Council