August 25, 2012
England

Deadline extended for feedback on ten-turbine windfarm site in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire Echo | www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk 25 August 2012

More people will get their say on a controversial wind farm plan now that consultation on the scheme has been extended.

RWE Npower plans to build ten turbines taller than Lincoln Cathedral next to the busy A15 at Hemswell Cliff.

West Lindsey District Council has now lengthened the consultation period from 21 days to 35. Parish councils will get 42 days.

It means that the planning authority will accept arguments both in favour and against the 415ft turbines until Saturday, October 13.

So the plans are unlikely to be put before the council for consideration until late 2012 or early next year.

They also include a permanent wind monitoring mast, sub-station and control building, a temporary construction compound, underground cabling and new access tracks. Access will be required from both the A15 and Middle Street at Hemswell for at least 25 years.

The council has now sent 1,200 consultation letters to residents and businesses within a 4km-radius of the site.

Suzanne Fysh is the head of service developments and neighbourhoods at West Lindsey District Council.

“I want to remind everyone that only planning considerations can be taken into account,” she said.

“They include local plan policies, Government planning guidance, planning law and previous decisions, highways safety and traffic issues, noise and disturbance and, of course, environmental impact.”

RWE Npower, one of the UK’s leading renewable energy developers, has commissioned an independent market research agency to carry out an online survey and give out questionnaires.

Katy Woodington, RWE’s UK community investment manager, said: “We have used the feedback from the first phase of the consultation to help shape the content of the questionnaire.”

Former Hemswell Cliff parish council chairman Mark Hurd, 58, said he wouldn’t respond to the company’s request for ideas.

“I’m not comfortable with the suggestion that if local people allow a wind farm to be built in their locality then the developers will spend money on amenities in their neighbourhood,” said Mr Hurd.

“And I’m certainly not happy that one of these turbines is proposed to be sited within 500m of a fireworks dump.

“It’s within a few hundred yards of a very dangerous road which regularly has to be closed because of very serious accidents.

“Not to mention that in other countries these turbines can’t be built anywhere near properties because in the past the noise from them has driven people to move away fearing for their health.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/08/25/deadline-extended-for-feedback-on-ten-turbine-windfarm-site-in-lincolnshire/