Protesters in a flap over bird ‘bloodbath’
Credit: By Kirsty Buchanan, www.express.co.uk 4 March 2012 ~~
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It is one of the most beautiful breeding spots for birds in Britain, but a plan for a mighty 150ft wind turbine near the Flamborough Heritage Coast has angered residents.
Anti-wind farm campaigners fear the turbine, just half a mile inland, will turn their neighbourhood into a bloodbath for birds.
Thousands are killed each year by the blades of giant turbines and this one would be in the flight path of migrating birds that include whooper swans and rare pink-footed geese.
If residents thought they could count on the backing of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds however, they were brought back to earth with a bump. The RSPB has failed to raise any objection to the turbine at Bempton in East Yorkshire, claiming it poses no risk to the 100,000 incoming birds.
The society’s stance has provoked a spat with residents who have written to the Heritage Lottery Fund asking it to pull a £33,400 grant for a new RSPB visitor centre near Bempton Cliffs.
They have also lodged objections with planners who must rule on whether the society can expand its visitor centre to accommodate the thousands of birdwatchers drawn to this site of special scientific interest.
The Bempton Residents Against Turbines group has also enlisted the help of Daventry MP and leading anti-wind farm campaigner Chris Heaton-Harris. He said the RSPB, which objects to just six per cent of applications for turbines, had “taken its eye off the bird” in Bempton and that raised “serious questions” about its level of concern for the coastline.
David Hinde of the BRAT said: “Some of the sea cliff birds do come inland and migratory birds turn about half a mile inland. This area is also affected by fogs in winter which really lower visibility.”
In Denmark, which generates nine per cent of its electricity through wind turbines, 30,000 birds a year are killed by rotating blades.
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