December 13, 2013
England

Protesters urge people to back wind farm fight

Published on the 13 December 2013 harboroughmail.co.uk

Protestors pictured earlier this year

Protestors pictured earlier this year

Campaigners fighting plans for a wind farm near Cotesbach are calling on people in the Lutterworth area to back them.

It comes after Renewable Energy Systems (RES) submitted an application to build four 126.5m-high turbines at Churchover, on the other side of the border with Warwickshire but just a mile from Cotesbach and a few miles south-west of Lutterworth.

In 2011 a proposal by power company SSE to build nine wind turbines at the same site was rejected by Rugby Borough Council on grounds it would harm the landscape and damage historic buildings and the conservation area.

RES says it has taken this into account in its new application for a smaller scheme – which it is calling Swift Wind Farm – and that the turbines would cause no “oppressive or over-bearing effects.”

But campaign group Against Subsidised Windfarms Around Rugby (Aswar) says it would ruin the countryside and is calling on people to back them by writing letters of objection to the borough council.

Lorne Smith, from Aswar, said: “It’s a wonderful site of very important grassland with some of the finest ridge and furrow that this area is so well-known for. The turbines would ruin all that.

“It is only just over a mile away from Cotesbach and is going to be in plain view on the south side.

“We’re encouraging people to write to the council to object. This is a practical thing that people can do to help make a difference and stop more turbines from being built in this area.

“The last time around it was unanimously rejected.”

Mr Smith encouraged people to visit its website at www.aswar.org.uk for details of how to comment on the plan.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/12/13/protesters-urge-people-to-back-wind-farm-fight/