June 28, 2011
England

Louth Marsh villagers 'must unite to stop wind farm'

Grimsby Telegraph, www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk 28 June 2011

Residents of the Louth Marsh villages have been urged to join forces to fight plans to erect eight wind turbines near their homes.

At a packed public meeting on Saturday, villagers from Great Carlton, Little Carlton, Theddlethorpe and Saltfleetby were told they must run an organised and united campaign if they are to stop the development going ahead.

As reported, energy company Energiekontor is expected to submit a planning application to build the 115-metre-high wind turbines at Gayton-le-Marsh within the next few weeks.

The meeting at Great Carlton Village Hall, which was attended by around 100 people, was organised by NOWAG ((No Wind Farm at Gayton), a group set up in October last year to oppose the development.

NOWAG chairman Tom Heys told the meeting that the eight wind turbines would “dominate the area for many miles in all directions”.

He added: “I accept we are not in an area of outstanding natural beauty, but this area has its own character and needs protecting just as much.”

Melvin Grosvenor, who successfully campaigned against a proposed wind farm at Baumber, near Horncastle, said Lincolnshire was coming “under attack” from wind turbines.

He said: “There are three wind farms built and 10 in the planning system. This is industrialisation on a huge scale, which is changing your landscape from a tranquil open rural landscape to a dominating industrial wind park.

He told residents: “The only people who will benefit from this are the developer and the landowner. If you do nothing to oppose this planning application the developer will say that you are not interested and that they have a right to come in, dig up your landscape and plonk these things in.”

Councillor Colin Davie, chairman of the Environmental Scrutiny Committee at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “I support renewables in principle, but I do not support intermittent renewables and onshore wind is the most intermittent of these.”

He said that wind farm developers were targeting Lincolnshire because it was seen as a “soft touch” and urged East Lindsey District Council, who will determine the application, to adopt the county council’s policy on wind farm developments, which he says will provide stronger resistance against unsuitable or unwanted wind turbines.

Sir Peter Tapsell, the MP for Louth and Horncastle, told the meeting he would fight “tooth and nail” to stop the beauty of his constituency being destroyed by “these ghastly wind turbines.”

Most residents who spoke at the meeting were opposed to the proposed development, with one describing it as “criminal damage”.

Michael Kennedy, of Great Carlton, said: “These things are huge. They are not part of the Lincolnshire area. I was neutral to begin with. I’m very much against it now and I very much hope we will get the support in this area to defeat this application if and when it is put in.”

Sarah Goodley, of Theddlethorpe, said: “I’m not against renewable energy, just when it’s on the industrial scale it’s being done at the moment. There is another way and that is small individual projects in back gardens and in farms that don’t need massive pylons going up.”

Peter Bowman, of Saltfleetby, said: “I came here to retire. From our front window we can see the wind turbines at Conisholme, from the bathroom we can see the ones at Mablethorpe, and we are sitting on gas. We are a dumping ground and we’ve got to say no. Enough is enough.”


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/06/28/louth-marsh-villagers-must-unite-to-stop-wind-farm/