August 20, 2012
England

Brontë Country villagers oppose wind farms

By Andrew Johnson | The Independent | 20 August 201

“Monstrous” turbines twice the height of Nelson’s Column are set to tower over the wild moorland that inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights under plans revealed yesterday for a second wind farm development in the area.

Fury erupted among the local community in April over £12m scheme by Banks Renewable Energy to site four 328ft turbines on Thornton Moor in West Yorkshire.

But campaigners who have vowed to fight tooth and nail against the proposals have been devastated by a new scheme announced this week to put nine 377ft tall turbines on moorland four miles away at Ovenden Moor.

Energy giant E.ON wants to upgrade the company’s two- decade- old Ovenden Moor Wind Farm by pensioning off the existing turbines and replacing them with models more than twice as tall.

Residents of Brontë Country were dismayed when the 157ft tall turbines at Ovenden were granted planning permission in 1993. But campaigners who fought the turbines in the first place say their impact will be insignificant compared to the proposed replacement turbines.

Brontë Society chairman, Sally McDonald, said yesterday: “They will change and scar the landscape of this very special moorland place in a way that will be abhorrent.”

An E.ON spokesman said : “The proposal would see the existing 23 turbines being removed and replaced with nine modern turbines… We’re currently consulting with the local community on these proposals and recently hosted public information days to give local people the opportunity to view and discuss the proposed designs for the wind farm.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/08/20/bronte-country-villagers-oppose-wind-farms/