Campaigners lobby MEPs over turbines
A pair of campaigners fighting plans for six massive wind turbines in a Stafford village travelled to the European Parliament to lobby MEPs on the issue.
Bob and Yvonne Giles, who live in Marston, flew out to Strasbourg in France with fellow business bosses who are all part of the Stop Turbines Action Group (STAG).
They met with West Midlands UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass who is backing their campaign.
Bristol company Wind Prospect wants to create six 420ft turbines on land at the Bradford Estate, part of Weston Park, in Brineton, to power 6,000 homes.
But residents fear it will wreck the area, dwarf trees and buildings and send house prices plummeting.
Some of the narrow country lanes around the area might have to be widened to cope with traffic and there are fears the scheme will cause congestion and noise.
There have been several protests from householders in Church Eaton, High Onn and Marston.
Mr and Mrs Giles told Mr Nattrass that two of the proposed turbines, as tall as Blackpool tower, would be within half a mile of their £695,000 detached home and would knock £150,000 off the value of the property.
France and Germany are already calling for legislation to ensure turbines are located further away from houses and campaigners say the same rules should apply in Britain.
Mr Giles said: “It is unfair to locate these monsters so close to people’s homes.” Mr Nattrass said: “We are against wind farms, but if they have to exist we must respect the wishes of local people, and they must be a reasonable distance away from homes. If it is forced on us it should not be within two miles of homes.
“We are going to make representations that rules effective in other countries on distance from homes should be respected in the UK. That’s the minimum we can do.” Wind Prospect has maintained that turbines do not tend to be noisy but there are strict Government targets on noise and proximity of turbines to homes. The company has promised to monitor them and if they did create noise they could be powered down.
Bosses also say there would be some widening of the roads to allow vehicles to get through while the turbines were being installed but afterwards there would be hardly any traffic.
Staffordshire Newsletter
www.staffordshirenewsletter.co.uk
12 November 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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