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Turbine plan now in focus
Credit: By Martin Neville, Isle of Wight County Press, www.iwcp.co.uk 15 February 2012 ~~
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Islanders have been hearing arguments for and against plans for two giant wind turbines near Parkhurst Forest.
Partnerships for Renewables (PfR) held two pre-submission public exhibitions this week for its wind energy proposals on Ministry of Justice land, close to HMP Isle of Wight.
While developers argued the case for two 125-metre turbines at an exhibition at the Riverside Centre on Wednesday, objector Dr John Yelland, who lives in the forest, was highlighting the arguments against in another room he had personally hired out.
PfR, which hopes to submit a planning application by the end of the month, claimed that while the turbines would be widely visible above the tree canopy, few properties within 1.5km of either of the proposed turbines were orientated so the main views from within the home or garden were towards the site.
They said ecology surveys, conducted in consultation with Natural England, concluded the proposal posed “negligible risk” to wildlife, while the turbine blades would be more than 50m away from the woodland canopy to reduce any risk to bats.
They also responded to concerns about noise by arguing that thousands of wind turbines operating around the world demonstrated it was not a problem for well-designed developments.
Noise was one of the main concerns raised by Dr Yelland, who said the turbines were far too close to people’s homes.
He said: “There are now quite a number of cases where people have had to move out of their homes because they cannot sleep at night, and then they find they can’t sell their house.”
Dr Yelland, an engineer and physicist, claimed the turbines would only produce up to 25 per cent of their combined generating capacity of six megawatts due to the intermittent nature of wind energy, which he said would pose problems for the National Grid.
Around 25m taller than the turbines proposed for Wellow, Richard Freeman, who has lived at Noke Common for more than 60 years, voiced concerns about their visual impact on the landscape and the threat they posed to wildlife including bats and migrating birds.
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