Wind farm inquiries are ignoring local concerns
Credit: The Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk 4 December 2011 ~~
The proposed wind farm at Nun Wood is even worse than Tim Coles (Letters, November 27) imagines. We own a farm next to the site of the turbines, one of which will be situated, according to Wellingborough council, 45ft from the boundary hedge of one of our fields.
As the turbine blades are 135ft in length, we could have 90ft of the blade over-sailing our land. I raised this issue at the public inquiry, but there is no mention of it in the inspector’s report. I also raised the danger of ice shearing off blades during cold weather but, again, there is no mention of that in the report.
The threat to wildlife was raised by the Northamptonshire Bat Group, the Berks, Bucks and Oxon (BBO) Wildlife Trust and myself. In fact, the BBO Wildlife Trust objected because the scheme did not meet guidelines laid down by Natural England which state that no part of a turbine should be within 150ft of a “linear feature” – for example, a hedge – so as to protect bats.
This was acknowledged in the report by a vague reference to protection for flora and fauna, but nothing more specific.
Therefore we face the prospect of a 375ft-high wind turbine over our boundary for the next 25 years, with a sizeable area of our own land out of bounds during the winter months for reasons of health and safety and no protection for wildlife.
Will Green
Bozeat, Northamptonshire
