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Cameron's turbine is gone with the wind
Last updated at 08:22am on 29.03.07David Cameron's campaign to give the Tories a green makeover may be going well, but his bid to do the same at home has hit a major snag.
The Tory leader has been forced to remove a £3,000 wind turbine from his London home - because it was put up in the wrong place.
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What goes up, must come down: Last week, left, the turbine was installed. This week, right, it has disappeared
Builders attached it to a wall last week, even though detailed planning permission specified it must be on the nearby chimney stack.
Now they have taken it down again, sparing Mr Cameron the embarrassment of 'enforcement action' by workmen from Torydominated Kensington and Chelsea Council.
The Tory leader's household is unlikely to suffer greatly from the loss of the turbine's electricity, however. Experts say there is not enough wind in Notting Hill to power much more than a hairdryer.
Compared to the 40 years the turbine will take to pay for itself - assuming it keeps working that long - a few days' delay is hardly crucial. There could be more problems ahead, though, according to the council.
It said it understood Mr Cameron's contractors are concerned the chimney stack may not be strong enough to take the turbine - hardly an immaculate piece of forward planning by a man who wants to run the country.
For the moment, his green pride and joy is lying uselessly inside his £1.1million house.
Mr Cameron's neighbours, on the other hand, are delighted.
They had fiercely opposed his plan, branding the turbine an ' eyesore' which would ruin their view and a 'gimmick' intended solely to boost the Opposition leader's green credentials.
The fact that it was erected on the morning of Gordon Brown's Budget last week reinforced their suspicions, and it was a neighbour who gleefully pointed out that it was in the wrong place.
The turbine was the most visible part of a major refurbishment of the house, designed by ' ecoarchitect' Alex Michaelis, to provide more space for the Camerons and their three children and use the latest in environmentally friendly technology.
It includes solar panels, high-level insulation and systems to recycle both air and water. Experts had cast doubts on the usefulness of the turbine, however.
They said claims that turbines could generate 1kw of electricity with wind speeds of 28mph were misleading because the average UK windspeed is 12.5mph - enough to generate only half a kilowatt of electricity which would barely power a hairdryer. Wind speeds in cities are even lower.
Mr Cameron has described the turbine as 'a first step towards doing the right thing'.
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