GREEN Party activists want to put the wind up Lancaster City Council...

They say wind turbines should be attached to city council buildings in order to help fight climate change - sooner rather than later.

The Greens want Lancaster to run a test project following a presentation made by Windsave to members of the district's Sustainable Development Partnership last week.

Windsave is a Glasgow-based business which manufactures wind turbines and associated electrical equipment designed for buildings.

The micro-turbines, which measure 1.75 metres from tip to tip, cost around £1000 and are said to generate around 1KW of electricity to be fed into the mains.

Installed on the right buildings they could pay for themselves within five years and generate free electricity , say the Greens.

Group leader Cllr Chris Coates says "This is a welcome application of renewable energy. We should find a council building that could be used for a local trial of this technology."

And County Cllr Jonathan Sear adds: "The economics look good for these new turbines, provided that they are put on buildings which use significant amounts of electricity 24 hours a day and are not sheltered by trees or other buildings.

"I hope to see a few going up locally in the near future so that we can find out how appropriate they are for urban areas."