July 26, 2012
England

Politician comes to see impact of wind farms

The Berwick Advertiser | www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk 26 July 2012

A leading politician is heading to Northumberland to meet wind turbine protesters and Conservative councillors.

Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, Coun Martin Hill hit the national headlines after his council took radical action to limit the spread of onshore wind turbines.

Lincolnshire County Council has passed far-reaching measures to discourage turbine applications, by banning turbines within two kilometres of homes, blocking multiple turbine applications in any particular area and giving active council support to resident groups opposing inappropriate applications.

Coun Glen Sanderson, deputy leader of Northumberland Conservatives, said: “Northumberland Conservatives believe that our own county council must listen to residents and do more to stem the tide of speculative and inappropriate wind turbine applications.

“Our meeting will give campaigners an opportunity to hear from a man taking decisive action in response to local opinion. Conservative councillors will learn valuable lessons for how this can be achieved.”

Coun Sanderson recently put forward a council motion seeking an urgent consultation on the spread of turbines, but his motion was blocked by the Lib Dem administration with support from Labour.

Coun Sanderson said: “Naturally, I was sorry not to carry the Liberal Democrats with us and I know that many other people were disappointed in them too.

“The Lib Dems seem constantly to be on the side of wind turbine developers and fail to recognise that we have already achieved our fair share of wind generation capacity in Northumberland.

“Most residents of our county want to see tougher guidelines. Northumberland Conservatives will not give up until we have a policy in place that offers greater protection for our residents, our economy and our environment.”

On Friday, Coun Hill will see at first hand the damaging impact of large scale turbine developments in Northumberland.

He will then meet local campaigners at a meeting hosted by Coun Glen Sanderson.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/07/26/politician-comes-to-see-impact-of-wind-farms/