LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME


[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]

Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Storm brewing over new wind farm plan 

An Abbots Bromley beauty spot faces another fight for survival after proposals to turn it into a £24million wind farm were announced last week – the third time in as many years.

Energy company Airtricity is set to submit an application to build ‘up to’ eight 350ft-high turbines on the Bagot’s Park Estate, north of the village.The news comes two years after ABEnergy Ltd retracted their plans for a similar scheme which were met with fierce opposition from villagers.

The multi-million pound project, which would take a year to develop, could create up to 25 new jobs and generate enough electricity to power around 10,000 homes, according to Airtricity.

But the latest proposals have once again been met with disapproval from locals.

Ward councillor Alex Fox told the Mercury: “I’ve not had one person come up to me to say that they’re in favour of it. There are a lot of people against it.

“I’m against any development of a wind farm on this scale – not just in my ward but in East Staffordshire.

“This is an exceptionally attractive, pretty area, the highest point in East Staffordshire and these wind turbines, some 400ft high, will be seen from every corner.

“This is a densely populated rural area and it will be a serious inconvenience – value of properties is going to drop.”

Cllr Fox also revealed that the wind farm’s sustainability is ‘not proven’ with previous plans failing because the quality of wind was ‘not good enough’ for turbines to function ’24 hours a day, 365 days a year’, with only ’60 per cent efficiency’.

The site, pinpointed by Airtricity because of its ‘good wind speeds’, has been at the centre of controversy for the past three years.

Back in 2004, Powergen aired plans to site seven 100ft-high turbines on the land, but, in a U-turn, did not submit an application.

Later that year, ABEnergy of Gloucester wanted to erect seven turbines, at a cost of £12 million.

But the company later retracted its plans to ‘alleviate council time pressures’, it claimed, and not in response to the mounting opposition it faced from local residents and civic leaders.

Now Airtricity’s plans to revive such a development have been put to the public in a number of consultations, including one at Abbots Bromley Village Hall this week, following ‘many months’ of work on the plans.

Mark Newstead, a member of the Abbots Bromley and Marchington Woodlands Wind Farm Action Group, said: “Local people have now seen through the green veneer of the wind industry and now know this is more about making money than creating energy.

“It has nothing to do with philanthropy, it’s politics and profit and nothing more.

“It’s a rural area and they would be completely out of proportion to the surrounding countryside and will be hugely intrusive to anyone living near them.”

Feedback from the public consultations will be used to finalise Airtricity’s application before submitting it to East Staffordshire Borough Council.

By Helen Draycott

Lichfield Mercury

13 September 2007

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky