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65 attend windfarm meeting
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More than 65 people attended a public meeting about plans for a windfarm in Pica.
Wind Prospect Limited wants to erect five 81-metre turbines on land at Fairfield Farm.
Villagers from Pica and Distington oppose the windfarm because of noise and the effect on the landscape.
The public meeting, at Distington Community Centre, was a chance for people to make their views known about the proposals, which will be considered by Copeland council in the next few weeks.
The Fairfield Farm site has been the subject of applications for more than 10 years, and plans have always met with opposition; the latest were resubmitted on September 29 after a similar application was withdrawn in 2005.
Frank Morgan, of Distington, said: “We have been trying to rid our area of industrial blight for 20 years. We were only just beginning to have an environment to look as it should. It is about time the people of West Cumbria say they have a right to a decent environment like everybody else.”
Julia Lynn, of Croftlands, Pica Road, said: “Everyone has to realise that this is the tip of the iceberg. The last application was for 20 turbines, this time there’s five turbines but they are taller. We are going to see a lot more than before.
“There are many things it will effect. My neighbours can actually see every turbine in the area. The cumulative effect on us is going to be horrific.”
The proposed farm is a kilometre south of Pica and two-and-a-half kilometres southeast of Distington.
Meeting chairman Jonathon Marriot said the developers would set up a trust fund for the area. Many in the room responded by laughing, and one shouted: “We don’t want their wind turbines and we don’t want their money.”
Tim Knowles, county councillor for Frizington, said: “The only people that benefit from these turbines are the farmers that get paid and the companies who put them up.”
But Cam Ross, county councillor for Distington and Moresby, said: “This is a precedent, if this goes ahead the message will get to London that they can put as many windfarms in Copeland as they like.”
Nobody from Wind Prospect was at the meeting but a spokeswoman said this week that the company valued the opinion of residents highly.
She said that throughout they had been open about their intentions and engaged fully in consulting local people.”
She added that concerns about more turbines being built on the site were unfounded.
“Wind Prospect carefully designs each development to fit the landscape and we do not feel the landscape in the immediate area could accommodate any additional turbines,” she said.
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