Turbine action group battles on
An action group against a proposed wind turbine in Checkley has held another public meeting as it continues to fight the controversial plans.
The Staffordshire Turbine Action Group (STAG) are campaigning against proposals by Severn Trent Water to build a wind monitoring mast at Checkley Sewage Works.
The group say that Severn Trent has told them they are considering a massive wind turbine being erected at the sewage works, one of the largest operating on-shore in the UK.
The turbine is expected to impact on nearby residents in the villages of Checkley, Fole and Deadman’s Green.
At the meeting, Mike Stigwood, an expert on fighting wind turbine applications, gave villagers a presentation about the likely noise nuisance levels from the proposed turbine.
One resident said after the presentation: “I was shocked to hear about another turbine site where a resident 900 metres away can not sleep at their home due to the dreadful noise.
“Many of the Checkley, Deadman’s Green and Fole residents live much closer to this proposed site, some as little as 350 metres away.”
STAG founder Keith Flunder told The Advertiser that the campaigners feel they are not being represented correctly in their fight.
He said: “The people who will be living closest to the proposed wind turbine will have little or no political representation during this planning application, as they live in Staffordshire Moorlands and the application will be considered by East Staffordshire Borough Council (ESBC).
“We are concerned about this situation, as it has already come to light that the information that ESBC and Severn Trent Water allowed to be in the public domain prior to the test mast application was inaccurate and had many errors in it.
“Mike showed us diagrams of this turbine compared to those next to the M6 and this is two-and-a-half times taller. In Europe they reject proposals for turbines less than 800 metres away from homes so why the government sees fit to allow one within 350 metres of homes here is beyond me.”
By James Brindle
1 July 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.
