September 26, 2007
England
England
The first official thumbs down has been given to contentious plans to build four towering wind turbines near the Norfolk coastline.
Ormesby St Margaret’s parish council has voted against the scheme to set up the 415 ft towering turbines on land between it and the village of Hemsby, near Yarmouth.
Monday night’s decision is the first rejection of the SLP Energy application to Yarmouth Borough Council, which seeks to install the turbines in order to generate 10 mega watts of green sustainable power for 5,500 homes.
The special planning meeting of the council heard that people were against the wind farm scheme because the site would end up dominating the skyline and could affect TV reception.
Chairman Geoff Freeman said the turbines were 100 ft taller than Norwich Cathedral and would dwarf the village’s parish church.
Mr Freeman said: “What we have actually got here is an application to build four quite massive structures right on the horizon of our landscape.”
Parish councillors said they understood the need for environmentally friendly power but raised concerns that by objecting to the plan on visual impact grounds they could be seen as pariahs by putting the interests of villagers before the environment.
Jim Shrimplin said: “They(SLP) are a commercial organisation making a profit, but they come across as if they were the saviours of the world.”
Hemsby Parish Council will discuss the application with representatives from SLP tomorrow night at a public meeting.
By Anthony Carroll
26 September 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/09/26/council-leads-objections-to-turbines/