Protesters lose battle over coastal wind turbines
Seven large wind turbines on the Castle Morpeth coast have been given the go-ahead, despite major local opposition.
Residents and councillors in the Cresswell, Ellington, Lynemouth and Linton (CELL) region were concerned that ScottishPower’s application for the 121m to blade tip structures on land adjacent to the Alcan smelter at Lynemouth would harm the landscape and regeneration efforts.
But following a planning appeal after Castle Morpeth Council rejected the bid, both Planning Inspector David Cullingford and Secretaries of State for Communities and Local Government and Energy and Climate Change agreed to allow it.
They said that while the scheme would have significant effects on the local landscape, they were acceptable “given the ability of the wider landscape to ‘absorb’ the scheme”.
“Like the Inspector, they consider that the turbines would almost always be perceived with the looming presence of the Alcan Smelter,” the report added.
They decided that the visual impact on views other than those from the nearest properties would be “insignificant”, saying most properties in surrounding areas would have a “severely restricted” view because of the high density of the villages and towns and intervening structures.
And the report said: “The Secretaries of State give significant weight to the wider environmental, economic and social benefits arising from higher levels of renewable energy, and also give significant weight to the current shortfall against targets (in Northumberland), and the contribution which the proposed scheme could make towards meeting those targets.”
The structures will add to six turbines in the Wansbeck District Council area, the turbines bid straddles district boundaries, if that application receives final approval from Government.
A UK Coal application for three turbines at Bewick Drift by the former Ellington Colliery, 110m to blade tip, was given planning permission following an inquiry last year.
9 January 2009
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.
