March 5, 2008
England
England
Campaigners battling plans to build a wind farm on a former airfield at Graveley are calling on residents to make their views known.
They want as many people as possible to go along to an exhibition about the scheme being staged by npower renewables, the company behind the project.
Protesters plan to fly a hot air balloon at more than 400ft to show the size of the proposed wind turbines, as well as demonstrating with placards and playing “Topple the Turbines” with skittles.
npower renewables wants to build eight turbines at Cotton Farm on the site of the Second World War airfield.
It has leafleted almost 6,000 homes within three miles of the site with a newsletter updating residents on the scheme.
But Bev Gray, chairman of the action group, said: “npower is the developer behind the wind farm proposal and this exhibition is part of their public consultation process.
“As such, the numbers who attend and the comments made will be reported back to Huntingdonshire District Council when they are considering any planning application.
“We are getting a lot of feedback that local people are angry about this proposal and want to oppose it. This is great, but we really need people to attend the exhibition. The more who register their disapproval, the more chance we have of stopping the power station.”
He added: “We are also urging people to write to their parish and district councillors so they get a strong message from electors that this wind farm is unacceptable.”
Campaigners say the turbines would be the biggest in the UK, standing 417ft high, twice as tall as Ely cathedral.
They are concerned about the proximity of the turbines to the homes, noise pollution and the impact on countryside and wildlife.
Kim Gauld-Clark, npower renewables project developer for the wind farm, said: “The images of the proposed wind turbines produced by Cotton Farm Action Group are wholly inaccurate.
“The scale of the wind turbines in the images supplied by the action group are not to scale and are shown much larger than the proposed turbines would be.”
She added: “Images of the turbines, along with many other site plans, have been produced by npower renewables and these will be available for public viewing at our exhibition.
“Our photomontages comply with strict industry guidelines to ensure accuracy.”
The campaign group said it had tried to make its images as accurate as it could. The exhibition is at Offord village hall from 2-6pm on Saturday and from 10am-4pm on Sunday.
5 March 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/03/05/call-to-speak-out-against-wind-farm/