August 30, 2013
England

Campaigners map out the march of turbines

Kingsbridge & Salcombe Gazette | 30 August 2013 | www.kingsbridge-today.co.uk

Wind farm protesters have literally mapped out what they see as the windpower threat to the South Hams.

The campaigners have put together a map pinpointing every application or ‘scoping’ proposal for wind turbines over 20 metres high across the district.

That amounts to 19 turbines stretching from Buckfastleigh to Chivelstone and from just outside Plymouth to Blackawton.

Now the various campaign groups in the district are joining forces in their effort to half the turbine proposals they claim will harm the countryside and the area’s vital tourism business.

‘What we are trying to do is protect what we have here and we are all very, very worried,’ said London- based film producer Julia Taylor-Stanley – a leading figure behind the campaign group opposed to move to build a 150ft turbine at Ritson in Halwell.

She said that a meeting was due to be held yesterday involving representatives from other campaign groups opposed to wind turbine proposals in their areas of the South Hams.

‘We have talked to other people affected by these applications which are all in what is a small radius. We are banding together to help and support one another,’ she said. ‘We are a very small community in a very beautiful place.’

She said the map had been put together to show just how many wind turbine proposals there are across the district.

‘One of our group looked at every application and everything that is under consideration – including two that have been turned down,’ she said.

She said it had been put together so that internet users could click on each turbine to find out its planning status.

Julia Taylor-Stanley and her husband Mark Marshall live in Blackawton, just 400 metres from the proposed Ritson turbine.

She claimed turbine companies have been targeting the South Hams, urging people to come up with sites now because the subsidies will be reduced from next April.

‘This is a very small area and it is the wrong place to be doing this,’ she said. ‘People are not aware of the extent to which we are being targeted by these companies.’

She said the campaigners were urging people to get their protests over the Ritson site into the South Hams Council’s planning department before the deadline today.

Blackawton Parish Council has already said it was objecting to the Ritson application.

Ms Taylor-Stanley pointed to the applications at Luscombe Cross, near Totnes, and one near Harberton which had been turned down by South Hams Council’s development management committee.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/08/30/campaigners-map-out-the-march-of-turbines/