November 16, 2012
England

Late drive to halt turbines

Written by Emily Nice | 15 November 2012 | www.cambridge-news.co.uk

Motorists will have to give way to 400ft wind turbines as they travel to their new home in Cotton Farm.

However, campaigners have launched an 11th hour bid to halt developers’ plans by buying £20,000 worth of noise monitoring equipment.

Wind farm developer RENERCO has confirmed the delivery of eight turbines to the former Graveley airfield will begin in less than two weeks time.

Deliveries are expected to be completed by the end of December.

Members of the Cotton Farm Action Group, who say they have been “let down by local government” will continue their fight by trying to prove the turbines are in breach of noise conditions.

Bev Gray, chairman of the action group, said: “Noise is the only issue we can fight on.

“Through public donations we have raised £20,000 to install a noise monitor which will be measuring the amount of noise the turbines produce 24/7.

“Once we have data that shows the turbines are in breach of noise conditions we will be pushing that data into the hands of the authorities.”

The farm was given the go-ahead following a three-week public inquiry in Huntingdon in May.

A spokeswoman for RENERCO said: “Although the planning permission for Cotton Farm does not require us to carry out any pro-active noise monitoring, we understand that some residents have concerns about the predicted noise levels from the wind turbines.

“As a goodwill gesture we will therefore be monitoring the turbines for between one and three months once they are fully operational in 2013.

“We have also decided to install state-of-the-art turbines at Cotton Farm that include the latest noise-mitigation technology to provide further comfort to local residents.”

In the week commencing November 19, delivery vehicles will travel down the A1 onto the A428 at St Neots, and then turn left before Croxton onto the road linking through to the site.

On delivery days, which will be confirmed on the company’s website www. renerco.co.uk, it is expected lorries will arrive at the site between 2pm and 5pm.

When required, larger vehicles will be accompanied by an escort car to help with traffic management.

Michael Rinklin, Cotton Farm construction manager at RENERCO, said: “We are about to start the final delivery phase of our work at Cotton Farm and I would like to thank local residents for their patience.

“We are sending out detailed information to residents living nearby and along the delivery route and we will try to keep disruption to a minimum.”

The wind farm is expected to be fully complete early next year and will provide the energy equivalent to the consumption of around 10,000 homes each year.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/11/16/late-drive-to-halt-turbines/