November 13, 2013
England

‘Turbines amount to industrialisation’ say campaign group

Grantham Journal | 13 November 2013 | www.granthamjournal.co.uk

Campaigners fighting plans to build five wind turbines each standing 126m say the application amounts to the industrialisation of the countryside north of Grantham.

The plans submitted by RWE npower would see the turbines built at Temple Hill, north of Brandon.

The plans appear to have united people in the surrounding parishes, many of whom have joined a campaign group reVOLT (rural economies and Voters Oppose Loveden Turbines).

Vikki Threlfall of reVOLT said: “We need to make people aware that this is unlike any other development seen in this area to date.

“It is industrialisation on a major scale and it could open the floodgates.”

Those who oppose the turbines fear that if the development gets the go-ahead it will lead to planners rubber stamping more in the near future.

Vikki said: “That’s what’s happened elsewhere in the country where landowners and farmers are looking to take advantage of what’s on offer and how would planners justify turning another one down if this was approved?”

Sarah Lewsley lives between Brandon and Stubton in one of the properties closest to the turbine site. News of the developer’s plans broke shortly after she bought her home.

Would she have still bought the property had she known what was planned? She said: “Absolutely not. We would never have bought if we thought this is what is going to be in our back garden.”

She has read about a Lincolnshire couple who successfully sued wind farm developers and landowners who built a turbine which will be shorter and further away than the turbines planned for near her home.

She added: “That says to me there could be serious problems for us. It could make our home unlivable.”

If the application does go ahead there are further concerns about the impact of construction of the turbines which is expected to take almost a year.

Roger Kingscott of reVOLT said: “At its peak there’s going to be 120 HGVs per day coming through.

“There would be 11 months of construction on the roads and then they would fix the damage they’ve caused.

“I just hope nobody dies in the meantime.”

With the deadline for objections running down the group is keen to encourage others to join them in their opposition – just don’t call them ‘nimbys’ (not in my back yard).

Vikki said: “People level the “nimby” accusation at us but for us it should mean ‘next time it might be you’.”


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/11/13/turbines-amount-to-industrialisation-say-campaign-group/