August 24, 2011
England

Turncole wind farm mast refused by council

By Ryan Jennings, Maldon Standard, www.maldonandburnhamstandard.co.uk 23 August 2011

A wind farm operator has been refused permission to extend the length of time a data-gatheing mast can be situated at the proposed site.

The application, put in by RES, was slammed by south eastern planning committee chairman Ron Pratt, as being light on detail after a “sparse” few sentences were submitted to the committee just hours before the meeting was due to start yesterday.

The application had been recommended for approval by district council planning officers.

Mr Pratt said: “It was turned down – there was very little information to explain why they needed an extension.

“They cobbled together a couple of sentences at about 4.50pm and the officer did read it out but it was very spare and members considered that they have had a mast there for seven years, and had increased the original one from 50m to 80m, they must have enough data collected because they have put a planning application in for the wind farm.”

The energy company has said the extra data collected would help identify what sort of turbines would be best used at Turncole.

But Mr Pratt said: “Their application is already in, they know what turbines will be used, and if they don’t, that application is going to seriously lack detail too.”

An RES spokesman responded: “The level of detail and timings for the submission of our application reflected the simple extension of the met mast already up and running at the site.

“We are keen to build and operate a wind farm at Turncole Farm and the supplementary data gained from allowing the existing met mast to measure for a longer period is useful for ongoing studies.”

RES wants to build seven wind turbines at Turncole Farm, between Southminster and Burnham.

A planning application has been submitted and validated by Maldon District Council.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/24/turncole-wind-farm-mast-refused-by-council/