February 19, 2013
England

Fresh protests at wind farm plan

By Anne Cox | Leighton Buzzard Observer | 19 February 2013 | www.leightonbuzzardonline.co.uk

A leading figure at Aylesbury Vale District Council has added his voice of disapproval to protests over plans for a controversial wind farm just outside Linslade.

Jonathan Bellars, the council’s senior landscape architect and urban designer has branded the proposed wind farm at Dorcas Lane an “unacceptable visual intrusion into the local countryside.”

Mr Bellars comments come after all six affected parish councils around the Dorcas Lane site have recommended refusal of the plans by Force 9 Energy/Electricité de France as has the council’s own Green Spaces team.

In his report which will go before the strategic development control committee on March 20 Mr Bellars says: “The proposal would result in significant adverse landscape and visual impacts.

“It would represent an unacceptable visual intrusion in open countryside which would cause harm to the character and appearance. It should be resisted on landscape grounds.”

The news was welcomed by the Stop Dorcas Lane Turbine Group, which has campaigned on behalf of local residents since 2011 to prevent four of the largest turbines in Britain being erected in close proximity to eight rural communities.

“We are delighted that the council’s senior architect agrees with us that this proposal is totally out of character and out of scale for the area.” said Joseph Cresswell, vice-chairman of SDLT.

“Quite apart from the many other serious problems – such as public health risks,destruction of wildlife and inadequate access for such massive engineering works, the sheer size of these turbines would create a monstrous blot on the landscape.

This is the wrong development in the wrong place.”

Last month Hampshire County Council adopted a policy of not allowing windfarms on its land throughout the county saying that the adverse impact on the countryside outweighed the benefit in clean, sustainable energy.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/02/19/fresh-protests-at-wind-farm-plan/