April 2, 2014
England

RSPB members oppose charity’s turbine plans

Ben Webster, Environment Editor | The Times | April 2 2014 | www.thetimes.co.uk

A group of RSPB members will make a last-ditch attempt today to block plans by the charity to build a 100m wind turbine at its headquarters on a nature reserve in Bedfordshire.

The members say that the turbine’s blades, which will sweep through an area of more than 2,000 square metres, could kill noctule bats and birds such as red kites, kestrels, swifts and swallows.

Peter Shrubb, leader of the small group of opponents within the RSPB, said: “They cannot guarantee that there will be no deaths or injuries once the turbine is up and running, and everyone I meet agrees that the very idea of a large wind turbine on a nature reserve is illogical and absurd.”;

A representative of the group will address members of Central Bedfordshire Council, who will consider an official’s recommendation that they grant permission for the turbine at the Lodge nature reserve near Sandy, where the RSPB has its headquarters.

Paul Forecast, the RSPB’s director for eastern England, said it had carried out observations at the site for three years and it was “confident that the risk to birds and bats is tiny”.

The RSPB said that the turbine would “produce the equivalent of two thirds of the RSPB’s total UK electricity needs”.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/04/02/rspb-members-oppose-charitys-turbine-plans/