New site for border wind farm proposal
Berwick Advertiser | 11 April 2014 | www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk
Berwick Advertiser | 11 April 2014 | www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk
The proposed location of two wind turbines close to the English and Scottish border has been moved to address planning concerns.
Advance Renewables, working with Berwick Community Trust, is still proposing a pair of turbines up to 70m tall at Marshall Meadows Farm, just south of the border.
However, a new scoping report submitted to Northumberland County Council places the turbines on farmland between the A1 and main east coast railway line.
The original plan had been to put the turbines on farmland to the west of the A1, some 800m away from the new location.
But Stuart Mears, project lead at Advance Renewables revealed: “The local planning authority considered the development had the potential for significant impacts on landscape character, visual amenity, the local road network, footpaths and ecologically sensitive areas.
“The response also stated that the effect of the proposal on the fabric of landscape, residential amenity and the historic environment was likely to be limited.”
The new site is 1.1km from the edge of the Halidon Hill battlefield site but developers say turbines would only be visible from 20 per cent of the battlefield area and could not be seen from the monument itself.
Berwick Town Council had raised major concerns about the visual impact of the previous proposal which would have been seen from the Berwick conservation area and historic walls. However, it is understood this was not a concern for council conservation officers.
Access to the new site would be via the existing Marshall Meadows Farm road off the A1.
The turbines would generate an estimated 4.6GWh of renewable electricity per year, equivalent to the average amount used by 1,000 UK households.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/04/11/new-site-for-border-wind-farm-proposal/