January 10, 2012
England

Rail chief to look at safety concerns over turbines bid

Yorkshire Post, www.yorkshirepost.co.uk 10 January 2012

A railway safety chief has said he is looking into safety concerns over wind turbines, after several were wrecked in bad weather.

Villagers in Bempton are fighting plans for two turbines, just under the height of Flamborough Lighthouse, some 180m from homes and 50m from a railway cutting on the Hull to Scarborough line.

Among their concerns is the threat to the line. In the most recent case, turbine blades were wrenched off three structures near Huddersfield last week by strong wind. One of the blades was flung across a road.

MEP Godfrey Bloom has taken up concerns about the plans for the turbines, which will stand 82ft high, on land south of Manor Farm, with Ian Prosser, head of railway safety at the Office of Rail Regulation. Mr Prosser has said he is looking into the concerns.

Villager Alan McLean will have one of the turbines directly in view from his kitchen window. Mr McLean said: “If it was a properly green community issue, one might have a different view, but there’s no community benefit at all.

“We live in an area desperate for tourism and it is a place people come for an unstressed beautiful life. But this is under substantial threat not just from major wind developments, but little ones which slip through piecemeal, one by one.”

Nearly 100 people attended a recent parish council meeting last Thursday.

Villager David Hinde, who is a member of the No to Wolds Wind Farm Group, raised the concerns over turbine safety with the MEP, Mr Prosser and Network Rail, after an 82ft turbine was blown down and smashed into pieces near Huddersfield in early December.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/01/10/rail-chief-to-look-at-safety-concerns-over-turbines-bid/