Resource consent sought for wind farm
South Taranaki District Council has received its first-ever resource consent application for construction of a wind farm.
Allco Wind Energy announced in April it planned to build a wind farm on coastal farmland near Waverley.
Bernhard Voll, technical director of Allco, yesterday confirmed the company had lodged a resource consent with the district council, but declined to comment further.
Graham Young, environment and information group manager for the South Taranaki District Council, said the resource consent was one of the largest the council had ever received.
“And it’s certainly the first one weve ever had for a wind farm.”
Mr Young said the next step was assessing the application.
“We need to assess it to make sure we’ve got enough information to make a decision [on whether to grant resource consent]. Then we have to decide whether it will be publicly notified or not.”
Publicly notified means members of the public can make submissions on the application.
Mr Young said he thought it was likely this application would be publicly notified.
The assessment process would take a couple of weeks. Mr Young said he was unsure if there would be opposition to the wind farm.
“It’s hard to say. Allco has already done a lot of consultation in the community and weve heard very positive responses.”
Allco held two publication information days in Waverley and Patea in May, where members of the public were able to meet with managers from the company, look at the plans for the wind farm and give feedback.
By Anne-Marie Emerson
14 September 2007
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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