June 14, 2012
England

Protest continues over controversial South Lakeland wind farm

By Stephanie Manley, Reporter, The Westmorland Gazette, www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk 13 June 2012

Opposition over controversial plans to create a wind farm at a picturesque site in South Lakeland is mounting with an action group being formed to fight the proposals.

Banks Renewables unveiled plans in April to erect five 135-metre turbines between the A684 and Junction 37 of the M6 near to Killington.

S.T.A.K (Stop Turbines at Killington) has now been cre-ated by 12 people who will be affected by the farm, inc-luding Paul Clark, who lives at nearby Lowgill.

“S.T.A.K is about local people getting together to say that we do not want this,” said Mr Clark. “We live about two-and-a-half kilometres from the proposed site, and can already see Lambrigg wind farm from my house. I would definitely be able to see the Killington farm and so this is why I got involved.”

Mr Clark said that the group’s first priority was to ensure people are aware of the plans to build the tur-bines.

“We want people to know that it is real,” he said. “It’s still early days, but we have already put together a leaflet to distribute and have been talking to neighbours.

“We want to find out how many people are opposed and what the general feeling is. A lot of people that we have spoken to have said they would object, once they’ve realised what exactly is going on.”

Chairman of FELLS (Fri-ends of Eden, Lakeland and Lunesdale Scenery), Sir Tim-othy Kimbert, said: “I think what this group is doing is fantastic. It’s terrific that they are giving up their time and we are right behind them.”

In response to the group, Phil Dyke, development dir-ector at Banks Renewables, said: “Whilst we respect the right of anyone to express their views about our pro-posals, the feedback we gath-ered at our April exhibition showed that a significant proportion of local people were in favour of the Kill-ington scheme.

“In addition to producing substantial amounts of ren-ewable energy, the Killington wind farm would bring a host of benefits to the area.”

If you want to become involved in S.T.A.K, or would like more information, con-tact member Tanya Hoare through tahoare@btinternet.com, 01539 824043 or Paul Clark through ourgbgvs@aol.com .


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/06/14/protest-continues-over-controversial-south-lakeland-wind-farm-2/