Residents shocked by plans for 21 turbines near village
There was standing room only at a meeting to give residents more information about plans to build wind turbines near their homes.
The event at West Haddon Village Hall was organised by action group Stop the Spin and discussed proposals to put five 126.5m turbines at Watford Lodge and a further eight at both Yelvertoft and Winwick.
Following a show of hands, two thirds of the people who attended the meeting on Wednesday last week were unaware of the plans which would leave West Haddon surrounded by 21 turbines.
Adrian Snook, chief executive of Stop the Spin, said: “At a time of 24-hour news, wikis, blogs, twitter and other forms of traditional media, it seems very surprising that so many local residents were unaware of this information until we brought it to their attention. One has to wonder why they were kept in ignorance of the facts and whose interests were served by this?”
Leader of Daventry District Council Chris Millar attended the meeting and assured people the applications would be dealt with in an even-handed way and encouraged people to make their views known to the authority’s planning department.
Stop the Spin has made a request to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to intervene under Article 14 of the Town and Country Planning Order 1995 to restrict planning permission for the schemes until their impact has been considered.
Mr Snook added: “The cumulative effect of all these proposed wind power station schemes will represent the most sweeping changes to the local landscape since the enclosures, with very significant and as yet unforeseen consequences for the lives of local people. These matters are too important simply to be left to rampant market forces, with hard-pressed local planners in neighbouring parts of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire treating each application in complete isolation.
“Northamptonshire is more than pulling its weight in terms of meeting regional renewable energy commitments thanks to the installation at Burton Wold. A proper strategic review is now urgently needed.”
Another meeting organised by Stop the Spin is due to take place at Crick Village Hall today (Thursday) at 7pm with Chris Heaton Harris, the former MEP for the East Midlands, due to attend.
By Steve Mills
16 July 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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