April 18, 2011
England

Firm ordered to take down mast

Bosses behind a planned wind farm near Tewkesbury have suffered a blow.

Bristol-based Wind Prospect is still waiting to see if it can install three 126m turbines near Upper Strensham.

Its application, which has attracted hundreds of objections, was submitted in 2008 but has yet to be considered by Tewkesbury Borough Council.

In the meantime, the authority’s planning officers have rejected Wind Prospect’s bid to keep a 70m high wind monitoring mast at the site.

Planning permission for the equipment ran out on February 3 and the firm applied to be able to keep it there until February 2013.

But the officers decided that would not be acceptable, saying it would be an “unwarranted intrusion into the open countryside”.

Campaigners say the wind turbines would be a blot on the landscape and would be visible from Tewkesbury town.