Fears over wind farm access ‘road’
Campaigners fighting plans for a wind farm close to Stafford villages fear the development could lead to open countryside being turned into an industrial zone.
The Stop the Turbine Action Group (Stag) is against plans for six 426ft wind turbines on land at the Bradford Estate, part of Weston Park.
Bristol renewable energy firm Wind Prospect wants to build the turbines to power 6,000 homes. The plans are yet to be submitted to South Staffordshire Council.
But householders living in nearby Marston, High Onn and Church Eaton say it will wreck the area, dwarf trees and buildings and send house prices plummeting.
And during a packed open meeting in Wheaton Aston Village Hall Stag chairman Tony Lendon said he was concerned about possible plans to build a new road to access the site.
Wind Prospect had planned to widen country lanes to help lorries get from the A5 to the land during construction but is now also looking at the possibility of installing a road on a section of lane close to the land, known locally as the Straight Mile.
Mr Lendon said: “By providing a major access road it will provide an opportunity to considerably extend development in the area.
“A planning application is expected to be submitted early in the new year but can be defeated if everyone who is against the wind farm makes their objections to South Staffordshire Council. It is not a question of objecting to renewable energy but that this site and the scale of development is totally inappropriate at this location.” Paul Grimshaw, development engineer at Wind Prospect, said there were no plans to build a road from the A5 to the site.
He said: “In order for vehicles carrying the turbine equipment to access the site we will need to widen some of the lanes and make alterations to some of the corners on the approach.
We are currently reviewing different options for the last section, commonly referred to as the Straight Mile, one of these options is to build a new track which would bypass it.”
By Sarah Marshall
Staffordshire Newsletter
www.staffordshirenewsletter.co.uk
10 December 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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