December 18, 2011
England

Anger over wind turbine

Selby Times, www.selbytimes.co.uk 18 December 2011

A couple were horrified when a huge wind turbine suddenly appeared just behind their family home without any warning from Selby District Council’s planning department.

Alison and Steve Allen, who live near North Duffield, could not believe their eyes when the 47.1 metre-high turbine was put up and completely “ruined” their idyllic view of the rolling countryside.

Selby District Council claims that they followed protocol and took “reasonable steps” to publicise the application but Alison is so aggrieved she is refusing to let it lie.

After they returned from a family holiday in Abu Dhabi, they saw a tower had already gone up. They discovered that plans for a turbine had been given the go ahead.

She wrote to SDC saying: “The amount of detail in the reports on the council website is staggering. You have taken the time to consult with everybody including groups with horse and bat interests but not the immediate neighbours! It is simply wrong and needs to be made public before other innocent people are affected in the same way.”

Parents-of-three Alison and Steve, who have lived at the Market Weighton Road farm for 13 years, had been visited informally earlier in the year by applicant Steve Headley, who explained his plans for a turbine at Whitemoor Farm and the Allens told him they felt it would destroy their view and devalue their property.

They expected a formal letter to arrive explaining the details of the application but as they never received any written correspondence from the planning authority, they assumed nothing was going ahead.

Alison added: “It’s unfair that they’ve shown us such a lack of regard. I think someone has really failed in their responsibility to local residents. Christmas or no Christmas, I’m not going to let this go.”

Four industrial premises were listed as having been consulted in the planning application, which was passed on June 23 this year.

An SDC spokesman said that the council consults directly with any owner or occupier of land that shares a boundary with a particular development and notices are placed within the local community and information is included in local newspapers.

A council spokesman said: “We’ve applied exactly the same principles in this case as are applied to other planning applications, and as set out in planning legislation – we believe we’ve taken reasonable steps to publicise the application in the local area.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/12/18/anger-over-wind-turbine/