July 28, 2008
England
England
Barnsley West and Penistone MP Mick Clapham has joined a growing band of politicians voicing concern over a controversial wind farm plan.
Mr Clapham has backed the Sheephouse Heights Action Group, which opposes the scheme, and told a meeting of the organisation that “the location is inappropriate”.
Now the MP is to write to Barnsley Council planning officials to request more information about the plan, which would see five wind turbines, each 410 feet high, built on the hillside between Penistone and Stocksbridge.
Hillsborough MP Angela Smith, whose Stocksbridge and Deepcar constituents oppose the plans, has offered the campaigners her unreserved support.
She has already warned ministers they are “sleepwalking” into the destruction of much-loved beauty spots.
Ms Smith also addressed the meeting. She said: “The wind turbines would be overlooking two conservation areas which need to be protected and that point, combined with the fact they will be on the edge of a national park, makes it a very difficult application to support.”
Prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate Spencer Pitfield, who will stand against Angela Smith in the newly refigured Stocksbridge and Penistone constituency at the next election, is also supporting the protest group.
Meanwhile Penistone Town Council, three parish councils, Hunshelf, Oxspring and Langsett, and Stocksbridge Town Council have all objected to the wind farm proposal.
By Gail Robinson
28 July 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/07/28/mp-mick-clapham-joins-campaigners-fighting-wind-farm-plan/