Planned Borders windfarm would be ‘devastating’, say residents
By Thom Kennedy, The Cumberland News, www.cumberlandnews.co.uk 17 September 2010
By Thom Kennedy, The Cumberland News, www.cumberlandnews.co.uk 17 September 2010
A huge windfarm on land near the Scottish border would have a “devastating” effect on local residents, it was claimed this week.
Energy firm EDF showed plans to build nine 420ft turbines on the Solway Moss near the M6 at Guards Mill in Gretna and Longtown last week.
The firm claimed that the turbines will be capable of powering 10,000 homes, and they have promised to donate an annual sum of cash to Longtown, totalling £400,000 over the life of the scheme, if plans go ahead.
Now residents have warned that the turbines, which would be almost triple the height of Carlisle’s Civic Centre, would blight their lives.
Annette Trotter lives in a farmhouse to the north of the scheme, with her mother Dorothy Siddle living in a smaller property next door.
She said: “There’s been a test mast up for quite a while so we did know there were tests going on to see if there was enough wind, and we got letters inviting us to the exhibitions at Gretna and Longtown.
“We are absolutely devastated. They will be very near our house, we will hear and see all nine of them.
“My mother is going to look out of her window and see nine 420ft wind turbines. That’s the height of three Civic Centres, a 30-storey building.
“She has farmed here for 46 years, and we have just swapped houses. She has gone into that house to begin her retirement, and her life there has now been ruined.”
EDF says that the turbines will prevent between 17,000 and 40,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere in its first year of operations, as well as 460 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and 130 tonnes of nitrogen oxides. The turbines’ electrical output could power 10,000 homes each year, the firm says.
But the ecological savings could come at a cost to local people. The hum and swish of the turbines present noise problems for nearby residents, backlit turbines create shadows flickering through windows of nearby houses, and stress-related illnesses have been linked to those living near such developments.
Mrs Trotter added: “The noise would make mum’s house unsellable and reduce the value of ours by a huge amount. The only winner in all this is a single landowner who receives rent for the site.
“My mum put money into her house to retire into but now her house will be unliveable and unsellable.”
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/09/18/planned-borders-windfarm-would-be-devastating-say-residents/