Colne Valley residents in uproar over wind turbine plans
Community members have spoken out about £100,000 Colne Valley wind turbine plans.
Plans for two 18m (59ft) turbines at a domestic property at Nettleton Hill have been submitted to Kirklees Council.
A spokesman for the applicant said in a report to planners that the dual turbine plan would have “a positive effect”.
It would produce a clean effective source of renewable energy with the surplus being fed into the national grid.
The statement also claims the two turbines could create more than 100,000 kWh – ten times the amount produced by Kirklees Council’s two Civic Centre turbines.
But angry villagers are in uproar after learning the giant structures will be only metres from dozens of homes.
If given the green light the turbines would be sited in one of the highest points above Golcar and would be visible across the Colne Valley.
Neighbour of the applicant, Alan Warmy, said he had been told the dual turbine plan was costing £100,000 and would make a 20% return per year.
And Mr Warmy said he was very disappointed the 18m tall turbines were being planned only 140 metres from his home.
He said: “Nobody we’ve spoken to is in favour and a few people are very upset and angry.
“I don’t have a problem with wind power in general, there are two further up that nobody has any problem with.
“I would applaud it if it was a smaller domestic one, but these two are planned to produce £20,000 electricity a year.”
Mr Warmy, who has lived in Nettleton Hill for 26 years, said if you took the 13m (43 ft) rotors into account the turbines were as tall as an eight storey block of flats.
He added: “This area is classified as of high landscape value by Kirklees Council and 13 of the 36 buildings are listed.
“The site where they are going is 200 feet higher than Castle Hill, it’s going to dominate the skyline.”
Ray Collier, chairman of Longwood Village Group, said: “Only the six closest residential properties to the proposed site were informed by letter of the application.
“As virtually everyone on the east side of the site will have these wind turbines on their horizon, we thought we should make sure that as many residents as possible were made aware of these facts.”
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
19 December 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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