August 22, 2012
England

600 objection letters against six-turbine wind farm in Lincolnshire

East Coast Target | www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk 22 August 2012

Campaigners against a six-turbine wind farm development in Croft have lost no time in beginning their fight.

Despite the proposals for land at Bank House Farm being validated by East Lindsey District Council just three weeks ago, more than 600 letters of objection have already been collected.

The Croft Wind farm Action Group (CWAG) handed a pile of responses to Councillor Pauline Cooper on Monday who received them on behalf of the authority but was unable to comment due to being a member of the planning committee who will decide on whether or not to grant the application.

CWAG chairman Melvin Grosvenor has already raised issues to some aspects of the planning application, and last week called for the developer, REG Windpower Ltd, to withdraw their proposals. He said: “There are 19 properties within 1km of the turbines and the closest is just 534m away.

“Best practice criteria says the nearest property should be 10 times the blade width which in this case would be 800 metres.

“If they were to do that, there would probably be space for two turbines if that.

“The developer should be ashamed that they would even think this site is suitable because it’s clearly not.”

CWAG has arranged to fly a blimp near to the site on September 21 and 22, weather permitting, to demonstrate the impact of the 100m high turbines.

On September 22, there will also be a public meeting held at Burgh Le Marsh WI Hall at 10.30am to discuss the application.

Melvin said: “The meeting will broaden out the wind farm issue. When you look at the overall area with Croft, Wainfleet and Orby in an almost wind farm triangle.

“From the three applications we have had around 2,500 letters of objection altogether, that’s a big number for these small rural locations and there will be many more to follow once the blimp goes up.”

Tracey Siddle, REG Windpower development manager, said: “We submitted our planning for the project after rigorous technical and environmental studies, which confirmed that this is an excellent site from which to generate substantial quantities of safe, clean, renewable electricity.

“The project has a significant number of local supporters.

“We are always interested in hearing from local people and I would encourage anyone with a question to visit www.bhfwindfarm.co.uk and get in touch with us.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/08/22/600-objection-letters-against-six-turbine-wind-farm-in-lincolnshire/