Protesters vow to continue battle against windfarm plan
Protesters have vowed to up their campaign against a bid to build a giant windfarm in rural north Bedfordshire.
Nuon Renewables has appealed to the Planning Inspectorate for England against Bedford Borough Council’s decision to refuse permission for nine wind turbines at Airfield Farm, Podington.
Members of the Campaign to Limit Onshore Wind Development (CLOWD) say they will fight to the end.
CLOWD spokesman Steve Chambers said: “Our campaign to protect north Bedfordshire from this senseless industrialisation continues, and our members will do everything in their power to ensure that the council’s total rejection of this project is upheld.
“There will soon be a pubic meeting to plan the way forward with our campaign, which the overwhelming majority of local people support.”
When the original application was submitted in October 2005, the borough council received 905 letters objecting to the planning application and 1,114 supporting it.
But permission was refused in June last year because councillors felt the turbines would impact on the landscape, would harm the living conditions of local residents, and would be too close to public footpaths and bridleways.
Nuon Renewables says it has challenged the decision because the proposed development would not have an unacceptable impact on nearby residential settlements and while it would affect the landscape character and visual amenity of the local area, that does not justify the refusal of planning permission.
A public inquiry will now be held later this year. The £20 million project was first proposed more than two years ago.
It would produce 52.8 million KWH of renewable zero-emission electricity a year, according to Nuon Renewables, enough to power 11,000 homes, the equivalent of 20 per cent of properties in Bedford Borough.
Each turbine would be 125m tall, the equivalent of a 35-storey building, and have blades measuring 90m.
Comments can be addressed to The Planning Inspectorate, 3/16 Eagle Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6PN, by Thursday, January 31.
By Paul Fisher
25 January 2008
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
