More doubts over wind turbine; Head of Lambourn Trainers' Association, Peter Walwyn, calls for public inquiry into plans
Further doubts have been raised over plans for a Lambourn wind turbine.
The head of Lambourn Trainers’ Association, Peter Walwyn (pictured), has called for a public inquiry into plans to build an 81 metre high wind turbine in Lambourn.
The latest application for permission to build the turbine in Baydon Road, which is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), was originally refused in December last year.
Applicant Matthew Partridge, who hopes the turbine will generate electricity for the national grid, is appealing against this decision.
There were objections to the plans when the application was made, and now that an appeal has been lodged, there is a chance for people to send in comments to central government’s Planning Inspectorate.
Mr Walwyn said he wanted to see the case dealt with openly. “I think people in Lambourn are asking for a public inquiry, and I think it is necessary, to discuss the facts,” he said.
He questioned how efficient wind farms are, and called them unsightly.
“We do not need a wind turbine in Lambourn,” he said. “It is the wrong place for one. The turbine would also be next to the M4 motorway, so people would be stopping and staring at it all the time, which may well cause congestion.”
The man behind the plans, Matthew Partridge, said: “We’ve had far more people in support of the turbine than against it. If the plans go ahead, I have an agreement with an energy company for the windmill to be community-owned, so if someone owned a 1% share in it, they would receive 1% of the profits.
“There is a wind farm in Oxfordshire that works like this, and I hold shares in it.”
He said his reason for lodging the appeal was that planning policy has changed since his last application. “You are now able to have up to four wind turbines in an AONB,” he said. “There is also a policy that you should have renewable energy sources near transport links, and you can’t get much closer to a transport link than right next to the M4 motorway.”
Comments on the appeal can be made in writing to the inspectorate by August 19.
By Clare Hardy, Reporter
18 July 2008
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