February 9, 2011
England

Protesters win fight against Todd Hill wind farm

By Brian Daniel, The Journal, www.journallive.co.uk 9 February 2011

Campaigners who fought a proposal for a Northumberland wind farm were celebrating last night after it emerged the application would not be proceeding further.

Novera Energy has not appealed against Northumberland County Council’s refusal of planning permission for its Todd Hill wind farm project inside a six-month deadline.

The news means the proposal can be taken no further, something which was welcomed by objectors.

However, they were wary of the potential for a new application for the site and vowed to fight any future project. The application from Novera, now part of the Infinis group, was for four 10-metre-high turbines at Todd Hill, near the hamlet of Pigdon, west of the A697 and 3km north of Morpeth.

The turbines would each have been five times the height of the Angel of the North. The application sparked 180 letters of objection and opposition from five parish councils.

Pressure group Put People First (PPF) was formed to fight the plans.

PPF claimed the turbines would create landscape features visible from the coastline to the Simonside Hills.

It also argued the site was not included in designated areas of least restraint for wind energy and was in a green belt.

In 2009 the group flew an orange blimp 101 metres above the site to depict the ‘overbearing’ impact the turbines would have on the area.

The application went to Northumberland County Council’s planning committee last April when members were being advised to approve.

Officers claimed the benefits of the scheme in helping the region meet its renewable energy targets outweighed any damage it would cause to the landscape and green belt.

However, the committee voted to refuse the scheme, taking the opposite view to officers by saying the harm to the landscape and views outweighed the pressure to hit Government targets.

The final decision was not issued by the council until June 1.

The company had six months from then to submit an appeal – a deadline of December 1 – and was considering its position in the wake of the refusal.

However, the developer has not exercised the option to appeal.

Infinis was unable to provide a comment yesterday.

PPF chairman Tim Weightman, who lives near Todd Hill with his wife Julia and three children, said: “We are obviously very pleased the appeal was not taken up, which has obviously put a lot of people’s minds at rest.

“That is not to say that there will not be an application in the future. If anything did come out we would have to go through the same process again of trying to fight it.”


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/02/09/protesters-win-fight-against-todd-hill-wind-farm/