October 10, 2013
England

Villagers’ united front against proposals

Shepton Mallet Journal | October 10, 2013 | www.thisissomerset.co.uk

Villagers of Prestleigh have banded together to fight proposals for wind turbines in the area.

The group, called Prestleigh Against Turbines, formed at the end of September and says it represents more than half of the households in the village.

Members say the group is committed to opposing the construction of wind turbines in the village.

Nic Jefferis said: “I have not seen the village so united and angry over an issue before and it’s a definite no to turbines from us all.”

In its objections the group highlights the limited attention to the visual impact turbines would have on the residents and businesses within the community of Prestleigh.

They say the need to provide representative views as part of the planning application appears to only consider visual receptors, the people who are passing through the area either on road or sightseeing, and not those who would see the turbine on the landscape all the time.

Following their delight at the refusal of an application for a 77 metre wind turbine at Bath and West Showground, Prestleigh residents are now fighting an application for a turbine of the same size at Manor Farm in the village.

A spokesman for the group said: “The applicant accepts that its turbine will bring a significant change to views for people living in Prestleigh, yet in its landscape and visual impact assessment it has selected not a single viewpoint to represent those views.

“It appears to be more important for the applicant to show the impact of the development on visitors to Glastonbury Tor than those having to live close to the turbine.

“This is directly contrary to the guidance which the applicant’s expert adviser has quoted in its report which stated that it needed to select an appropriate number of representative or sensitive viewpoints to reflect the full range of different views towards the project.”

They also said that the development would degrade the natural landscape setting of the village and ruin residents’ enjoyment of their homes, gardens and the pub making them less attractive to live in.

The application to build at Manor Farm was registered on Thursday, September 19, by Peter Hill.

He has proposed the erection of a single wind turbine, with a maximum blade tip height of 77m, along with accompanying access track, crane hardstanding, substation, associated underground cabling and temporary construction compound.

Deadline for comments is the end of today – call case officer Oliver Marigold on 0300 3038588.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/10/10/villagers-united-front-against-proposals/