‘Gusty’ at its temporary home in De Beauvoir [BRITAIN REMADE]

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ED Miliband – the Labour government’s environ­ment secretary – told the Tribune that people would accept wind farms dotted around London in return for cheaper energy bills.

The former party leader, who lives in Dartmouth Park, was speaking at a disco party in honour of a 28-metre pink and purple turbine called Gusty, temporarily overlooking homes in the De Beauvoir area on the Islington and Hackney border.

Power from the machine helped light up the dancefloor and power the DJ booth, with campaigners calling for it to be made easier for turbines to be erected in urban areas.

Asked whether there would be support for the unmissable equipment to be built in people’s home neighbourhoods, he told the Tribune: “They won’t literally be in people’s back gardens.

“People can still have a say of course, and people should also get a benefit to their own communities from hosting clean energy infrastructure. But I think there is a majority of people who do want us to do this, and with the Labour government we have a government committed to making it happen.”

One heckler shouted out the word “bribes” as he made a speech to the gathering – in relation to the public potentially getting lighter energy bills in return for building turbines and fitting solar panels.

Ed Miliband speaking at a party in honour of the pink and purple wind turbine

“I don’t see it that way,” Mr Miliband quickly responded.

Gusty’s colours are those of the UK’s largest electricity supplier, Octopus Energy.

Mr Miliband thanked his “friend”, Greg Jackson, the company’s CEO, and said: “This is a climate argument, and it is an energy security argument, and it is a bills argument, and it is a jobs and growth argument. Why would you want expensive, volatile, insecure fossil fuels when you could have cheaper, clean renewables which you control?”

The party was organised by Britain Remade, a group campaigning for planning system reform to make it easier to build wind farms.

The group’s director, Sam Richards, previously led a forum for climate-concerned Tories the Conservative Environment Network, and was an adviser at Downing Street during the last government.

The aim of the temporary installation was to show that clean energy technologies can be installed quickly and easily to reduce carbon emissions and cut energy costs.

With Islington South MP Emily Thornberry at the disco party which was partly powered by the machine

Mr Jackson said he had seen polls which had found onshore wind to be more popular than pizza and football.

He said: “We need to stop worrying about ‘what do you do when it’s not windy’. Honestly, there are a million ways of solving it. But when it is windy and it is sunny, it is criminal to be burning gas.”
Islington South MP Emily Thornberry, another guest, said: “Nobody wants to pass down a planet that’s three degrees warmer than what we inherited. We have to make hard decisions and the power is in our hands so let’s just do it, let’s not be afraid.”

Ms Thornberry said she thought it “unlikely” that there would be turbines of Gusty’s size around north London in the future, but that smaller turbines and solar panels would be important.

Neighbours were also invited to the party.

Jonathan Smith, who was the heckler at the event, said: “They [Octopus] have a message to put across. Most of the audience are receptive, but there are one or two individuals who ask awkward questions and that happened to be me.”

He said that Mr Miliband did not want to talk about the potential use of nuclear power because the event was close to CND’s historic operations in Hackney and a mural in Dalston.