January 6, 2013
England

Cliviger Wind farm fight hits the streets

By Hannah Ramsden | Published on Sunday 6 January 2013 | Burnley Express | www.burnleyexpress.net

More than 100 villagers braved the wind and rain and turned out to show their opposition to plans to redevelop a wind farm in Cliviger.

Protesters carrying placards and banners met at Mereclough and walked to Southward Bottom to show the disruption of a planned access road through the heart of the village.

Under the proposals, put forward by Scottish Power Renewables, the road would be used to transport new turbines to Coal Clough Wind Farm in lorries measuring 50m long and 4m wide.

The bigger turbines, standing at 110m tall, would replace the existing ones which have been in the village for the last 20 years.

But residents living nearby said the access road would create a blot on the landscape and make life a misery for people living in Cliviger and across Burnley, along the route from the M65. During the protest they recreated the size of the wagons to demonstrate how big they would be.

The proposals will go before a meeting of Burnley Borough Council’s Development Control Committee on January 10th.

One of the protest organisers, who did not want to be named, said: “There were huge amounts of people there. It was amazing, we were able to form the width and length of these vehicles to show the size of the vehicles which will be travelling through the area.

“To say the weather was as bad as it was, it was a great turnout. The organisers really appreciated the strength of feeling. These vehicles will be travelling through everybody’s back yards.

“We’ve lived with a wind farm for 20 years, we are not against wind farms, that’s not the issue.

“It’s the disruption that will be caused throughout Burnley. We already have eight buses an hour coming through Cliviger, plus school buses. We will have more than 4,000 lorry loads coming in over an 18-week period.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/01/06/cliviger-wind-farm-fight-hits-the-streets/