March 16, 2011
England

High Court date set for ‘nuisance turbines’ hearing

By Sharon Pell, Spalding Guardian, www.spaldingtoday.co.uk 15 March 2011

All eyes will be on Deeping St Nicholas this summer when a landmark case on noise created by wind turbines reaches the High Court.

A date has finally been set for Jane and Julian Davis to have their say on turbines which they claim have forced them out of their home.

Their legal bid, which is thought to be one of the first private nuisance cases brought against a wind farm, will be heard in the High Court from July 4 and has been scheduled to run for ten days.

Mrs Davis said: “We have done our witness statements, which run into many thousands of words, the rest of the witness statements have been put together and there are a lot of experts looking at the noise issues.

“It would be nice to think we could get some kind of outcome where they stop the noise so we can go home.”

Mr and Mrs Davis’ farm is just 1,000 metres from the wind farm which went “live” in 2006.

The couple claim they were left unable to sleep from the noise coming from eight 100-metre turbines and they were forced to move into rented accomodation in Spalding.

Mrs Davis has previously described the noise as a constant low humming during the day and says the turbines make the sound of a helicopter landing during high winds or when the air pressure changes due to cooling in the evening.

However, the couple have insisted they are not against wind turbines in principle.

Mrs Davis says she is “cautiously optimistic” about their ongoing battle being used as a test case for other campaigners across the country.

The Deeping St Nicholas site will also become the focus of an international audience next month.

A four-day conference is taking place in Rome next month where delegates will be discussing issues surrounding wind turbine noise.

“About 100 academic papers are being presented to that conference,” said Mrs Davis. “Experts have used our case for 27 of them. They will be discussing knowledge gained at Deeping St Nicholas.”

Mrs Davis estimates there will be about 300 people attending the conference.

She said many visitors still call at the farm, where her husband still works on a daily basis.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/03/16/high-court-date-set-for-nuisance-turbines-hearing/