October 8, 2012
England

Residents’ road blockade threat in windfarm saga

By Ian Dunstan | 07 October 2012 | www.in-cumbria.com

Angry Haverigg residents have vowed to take matters in to their own hands to stop traffic from a planned windfarm coming past their homes.

Speaking at a public drop-in session on the proposed HMP Haverigg windfarm, residents of Combe View, at the far end of North Lane, said they were against the developments.

In a bid to halt the HGV wagons transporting materials to the prison site, the homeowners, who did not wish to be named, said they would resort to putting speed bumps and other blockades on the unadopted road outside their houses.

One resident said: “That road belongs to us so we have to maintain it. “It’s not the turbines that’s the problem. They’ll actually be quieter than other turbines. It’s the traffic.

“That road will be blocked.”

At the meeting, the group behind the windfarm project, Partnerships for Renewables, revealed plans to give Haverigg residents £150,000 towards their road maintenance budget, should the work go ahead.

Alice Gill, communications manager for PfR, said: “We’ve written to the Haverigg Residents’ Association and said, if planning permission is granted, after construction we would make good the road again, if it were to get damaged by the traffic.

“We said in our proposals that we would resurface the road after we’re finished.

“But being as we’ll be repairing it anyway we’ve suggested giving the £150,000 to a community group, which they can use for road maintenance projects.”

Around 20 residents attended the drop-in session held at Haverigg Working Men’s Club on Wednesday.

Among them was farmer Jack Phillips, who expressed concerns about transporting livestock from his Brookfield farm, in North Lane, during the windfarm’s construction.

Mr Phillips, who has occupied the farm since the 1960s, said: “Because we’re a working farm we need to be on the road as and when we need to. We’ve got animals to feed and poultry to transport. We have big wagons transporting thousands of chickens at a time and they can’t be stood still for too long.

“The general feeling from residents is that we don’t want the development to happen.”

Miss Gill said: “We’ve said to Mr Phillips that if he lets us know of his movements then we can work around him.

“The views we’ve had from residents have been quite balanced.

“People have been dropping in to find out more information and to look at the proposed transport route.

“The residents have expressed a bit of concern about the route our wagons would take.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/10/08/residents-road-blockade-threat-in-windfarm-saga/