November 19, 2013
England

County a ‘turbine dumping ground’

South Yorkshire Times | 19 November 2013 | www.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk

Plans for a seven turbine wind farm at Crowle Moors will ruin residents’ quality of life, an angry home-owner claims.

The Old River Don Wind Farm proposal will add to the 40-plus turbines already dotted around the area, and Neil Walker of Long Acres says “enough is enough”.

REG Windpower is in the preliminary stages of assessing the suitability of land next to 22-turbine Tween Bridge Wind Farm, on the boundary between Doncaster MBC and North Lincolnshire, for renewable energy development.

A company spokesman said: “We believe the site has p otential to accommodate up to seven additional turbines (generating 14MW of energy) measuring a maximum of 126.5m to the tip of the blade.

“We are conducting a range of studies, including noise, ecology, archaeology and transport assessments, to establish the suitability of the site. The findings of this work will be submitted to North Lincolnshire Council next year.”

Mr Walker, who has lived in his property for 13 years, was approached by REG Windpower asking if the company could place noise monitoring equipment on his land.

He told the Bells/Advertiser: “I’m in the middle of a moor and I’m looking at 50 wind turbines and quite frankly we’ve had enough, it’s disgraceful.

“I’m not entertaining it. It’s about to ruin our quality of life, it’s just not fair, it’s wrong.

“There comes a time when you have to say enough is enough. The first lot of turbines went up about three years ago and now we are surrounded by them. I don’t mind doing my bit for the environment but North Lincolnshire is becoming a dumping ground.”

North Lincolnshire Council Axholme North ward member, Coun John Briggs said: “These people came before and now they are carrying out a scoping exercise.

“Even though there is not a planning application yet I have spoken to the head of planning and said that I want this to go before the planning committee. There is no way it will be decided by an officer. It will give members of the public and myself and other council members the chance to have their say on it”.

The company spokesman added: “In addition to generating significant quantities of much-needed safe, clean, renewable electricity, we propose to establish a Community Fund to support local good causes throughout the wind farm’s working life.

“This could be worth up to £70,000 per year and we would be delighted to hear from local people or groups about how this money should be spent.”

Anyone with questions about the proposals and the community fund should contact the community engagement team Your Shout on 0191 233 9010 or email reg@yourshout.org

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/11/19/county-a-turbine-dumping-ground/