September 17, 2010
England

Wind farm protesters hand data to council

Suzan Uzel, www.cambridge-news.co.uk 17 September 2010

Campaigners have presented a 65,000-word document to planners as part of a bid to stop a wind farm being built.

Broadview Energy wants the Huntingdonshire District Council to permit four wind turbines to be constructed near the Bicton and Harvards Way industrial parks, between Stow Longa and Kimbolton.

If permission is given, Broadview says the turbines could be in operation late next year and generate enough power to meet the annual needs of about 5,000 homes.

This week, the action group Stop Bicton Wind Farm at Kimbolton presented a rebuttal document – a formal way to outline the alleged flaws in a plan – to the district council at its offices in Huntingdon.

Richard Murphy, chairman of the action group, said: “We surveyed a good 500 to 600 people in the area and so believe we are speaking on behalf of a huge number of people.”

He added: “The developers are talking about putting the turbines on probably one of the most protected pieces of land in Huntingdonshire.

“There are four huge breaches of local planning policy and four grade- I listed buildings that will be badly affected.”

He said the developer’s environmental impact statement did not take account of cumulative development, and that its assessment of noise was “flawed”.

He said: “There are three schools within a mile of this and developers have taken no account of the noise impact or health impact that could come from shadow flicker.”

Shadow flicker can happen, for example, if the sun is behind the rotating turbines.
Danny Maher, project manager for Bicton Wind Farm, said the company had followed guidelines.

He said the environmental statement was “detailed” and noise levels were within permitted limits.

“We would not agree it would badly affect listed buildings. We submitted our planning application a couple of months ago and that application took account of the information known at submission,” he said.

Tilbrook, Stow Longa and Catworth parish councils have recommended refusal of the plans and Kimbolton parish council was making its recommendations yesterday. Charles Paull, chairman of governors at Kimbolton School, wrote to the council to cite concerns about the impact on Kimbolton Castle and “noise and flicker” from the site.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/09/17/wind-farm-protesters-hand-data-to-council/