REVIVING Purbeck's water-mills in order to produce environmentally-friendly electricity has been raised as a suggestion in the face of fears over global warming.

Purbeck District Council was asked to give its views and contribute funds towards the development of a renewable energy strategy for Dorset.

Local authorities across Dorset with funding from the Government Office South West have formed the Dorset Energy Group to look at ways of reducing greenhouse gases.

Purbeck district council agreed to contribute £500 towards the work of the group.

Purbeck district councillor Malcolm Shakesby said: "There is an awful lot of discussion about wind farms and we've the potential for getting (schemes) in Poole harbour, Weymouth, Portland and there is already a monitoring scheme at Puddletown Road.

"We don't seem to be really looking at harvesting the waters and rivers in Dorset.

"Along the rivers in Dorset there are still lots of old mills that ground grain and continued to work up to the end of the 1920s, early '30s .

"The people who ran these mills put in small DC generating plants that produced electricity for the areas they lived in or farmed.

"If they could do this in the 1930s surely in the 21st century with the amount of equipment there is around we should really be looking into this. There are lots of old mills around, for example, at Bindon and Trigon."

Cllr Eric Osmond said: "There is an ever increasing demand for electricity and we are importing energy from France, Norway and shortly from Russia.

"I think it is sacrilege that this country, as a major engineering country, is reliant on energy from other countries."

He also said: "Energy is the lifeblood of this country and we are not self-sufficient when we should be."

Cllr David Budd said: "I'm not convinced about wind power, these generators do not produce a lot of power and in my opinion they are unsightly."

First published: October 18