A national campaign has issued a challenge to the Government to prevent the building of wind farms in areas of natural beauty, such as Ilkley Moor.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England is warning that the Government's push for renewable energy could result in 1,000 square miles of onshore wind farms - an area big enough to cover the entire North York Moors twice over.

And organisers urged anyone who feared for the future of their local landscapes to join their battle to preserve the English countryside.

The CPRE has thrown down the gauntlet with ten tests which it wants to see applied to the Government's eagerly awaited policy on planning for renewable energy.

The CPRE's fears echo those of people in the Ilkley area who were horrified to discover that the Moor would not be protected from the threat of wind farms under the planned policy.

In last week's Gazette Councillor Chris Greaves, chairman of the Keighley Area Planning Panel, warned that wind turbines could be the nightmare future for Ilkley Moor unless action was taken now.

He stressed: "It is vitally important that we are all going to jump up and down about this. There are appropriate places for wind farms where nobody can see them. I hope outrage is expressed - we have got to protect what we have. I am dead against it. "

Now the CPRE's Senior Natural Resources Campaigner, Jill Hatcher, has delivered her own stark warning of the threat to some of our best loved countryside.

She said: "The crux of what we are saying is that places like Ilkley Moor are going to be under threat unless the Government gets its planning policy right. "

She warned that as turbines reached heights over two-thirds the height of the towers on the Humber Bridge their increasing number threatened to devastate the beauty, tranquility and diversity of the English countryside.

She stressed: "Truly sustainable solutions should mean the public don't have to choose between protecting the landscape they cherish and saving the planet on which they depend.

"This means wind development should steer clear of sensitive landscapes. That doesn't just mean avoiding designated areas of countryside, but ensuring that locally-valued landscapes are not damaged by the cumulative impact of turbines.

She urged local people to join their campaign to protect cherished landscapes such as Ilkley Moor.

"We need to get the right renewables in the right place," she said.

"This should depend on the ability of the local environment to absorb such developments. Requir-ements for renewables development should not be dictated and doled out simply on the basis of predicted demand for energy."

The CPRE is urging the Government to look at alternative ways of producing energy such as the sun and the tides. And it is stressing the need for a reduction in consumption.

"We cannot build our way out of climate change with wind turbines," she said. "The Government needs to place much greater emphasis on planning to reduce our need for energy and making it relevant to people's lives. We need new policies to increase vastly the number of small-scale and community based energy schemes across the country.

"Together such measures will help to ensure that our future energy supply is efficient and reliable, without causing unnecessary damage to the cherished English landscape and the beauty and tranquility of Yorkshire and the Humber."