The Western Morning News is calling for a “full, open, widely publicised and reported debate” before wind turbines planned for the Westcountry are built.

The Plymouth-based newspaper has reported that more than 50 giant turbines are to be built in Devon and Cornwall, with the possibility of more than 250 across the region – plans that the paper has slammed as “sheer economic and environmental madness”.

In a front page comment editor Barrie Williams urged residents to try and stop the “horrendous industrialisation” of the countryside before it goes unchecked.

And he said that, athough the dangers of global warming cannot be disputed, 300ft wind turbines are the not the answer.

He said: “Energy conservation, identification and introduction of new, environmentally-friendly, renewable alternative power sources make absolute sense.

“But Westcountry campaigners believe – and the Western Morning News supports them – that the impetuous rush to build hundreds of monstrous, noisy, ugly and massively intrusive wind turbines across one of Britain’s most beautiful landscapes is not only demonstrably the wrong option, already discredited in several other countries, but sheer economic and environmental madness.”

The editor also questioned claims by the wind power lobby that the majority of people in the UK support wind power, and suggested that if they were aware of the full impact the turbines would have on the countryside, their reaction would be different.

He said: “They would ask, as we do, precisely what will be the benefits to set against the detriment to the Westcountry’s own environment and are they really worth it?

“They would ask why it is necessary to create these monsters in rural beauty spots and why – if they are worth building at all, given their small contribution to our energy needs – it cannot be in locations already spoiled by industrialisation?”

And he said that evidence from other countries showing the failure of windfarms to make a significant contribution in the fight against global warming, was enough of a reason to stop and take stock.

Barrie said: “If the Government had done its job properly it would have encouraged and facilitated that debate long before the crazy rush to build the giant turbines began. It did not.

“The Western Morning News is now trying to make sure that the debate happens.

“In so doing, we are not trying to destroy the planet. We’re just doing our job.”

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