The decision of Oxford City Council and Partnerships for Renewables (PfR) to put on hold plans for a wind turbine at Cutteslowe Park only serves to highlight the weaknesses in the arguments for placing such facilities around our less-than-windy but heritage-rich city.

We have always argued that the city council’s policy on wind turbines is tokenistic. Oxford is not an appropriate place to site such structures because of its heritage, the proximity to homes, the green environment and, rather critical we think, its relative lack of wind.

The RAF has managed to add another one to the list — and one that could kill off the plans for good — the disruption to radar services vital to the good operation of RAF bases at Benson and Brize Norton.

Faced with this, the council and PfR appear to have accepted that two wind turbines will be difficult to achieve but say that there may still be a technical solution that allows one turbine.

There seems little point in building one turbine in Oxford when it is only profitable for the operators because of the huge public subsidies that are available.

Wind turbine policy should focus on areas that are very windy and have little landscape or amenity value. In short, it means putting them out at sea.