June 8, 2012
England

Sites in Hyndburn are earmarked for wind turbines

Lancashire Telegraph, www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk 7 June 2012

Proposals to provide greener energy in a borough has seen key sites earmarked as suitable for wind turbines.

Councillors in Hyndburn are to review the proposals next week, which could see the sites become part of the long term plans for the borough’s development.

The council said the study was undertaken as part of an increasing demand to source the nation’s energy from renewable sources.

Areas identified as suitable for large scale with turbines over 120metres in height – equivalant to the length of 12 double decker buses – include land near the A56, north of Baxenden Golf Club.

An extension to the existing wind farm on Oswaldtwistle Moor Wind Farm is also proposed, plus the development of turbines on land to the west of Great Harwood, near Dean Clough Reservoir.

Smaller developments are also proposed at Whinney Hill, in Huncoat where smaller-scale 500kw turbines could link into existing infrastructure that has been developed to supply electricity generated from landfill gas into the national grid.

Several smaller turbines are also proposed for land south of Rishton near the M65, which could potentially accommodate several smaller 500kw turbines.

Council leader Miles Parkinson said: “We have to be careful that we don’t have turbines pepper-potted everywhere and that’s why careful planning is needed. It’s part of our core planning strategy and is just a way to ensure we have checked which places in the borough are viable and which aren’t.

“It doesn’t mean the council will necessarily give the green light to a development for these sites – it is just a way of guiding planning.”

The council is to consider at next week’s cabinet meeting whether to make the sites’ suitability for wind turbines part of the borough’s Local Development Plan.

A report on the issue says an inclusion of the wind turbine study would ‘guide developers towards those areas with potential’.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/06/08/sites-in-hyndburn-are-earmarked-for-wind-turbines/