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New plans submitted for controversial Tolpuddle wind farm
Credit: UPDATE: New plans submitted for controversial Tolpuddle wind farm | By Lee Irving | Dorset Echo | 4th June 2014 | www.dorsetecho.co.uk ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
Campaigners against a proposed wind farm site near Tolpuddle have vowed to carry on fighting after revised plans were submitted by developers.
Renewable energy company West Coast Energy submitted a new planning application for the West Dorset Wind Farm, a five-turbine site on farmland north of Tolpuddle to West Dorset District Council.
The new plans, submitted yesterday, will see five turbines each with a height of 115 metres on the site, reduced from the initial nine at a height of 126.5m the company had planned before it withdrew its application in October last year.
The Tolpuddle Against Industrial Turbines (TAINT) group was set up when the original nine-turbine plan was submitted, and chairman Richard Slocock said the group’s stance had not changed in the light of the new proposal.
Richard Slocock, chairman of TAINT, said: “Our opinion hasn’t changed. They have removed the turbines from the western and eastern edges of the plans but the five central ones remain which will affect both Tolpuddle and Millborne St Andrew.
“The turbines are huge, absolutely enormous. They are not like the ones in Bere Regis, these ones are industrial sized ones that will ruin the rural landscape.
“It is an industrial wind farm that we do not think is suitable for our area, the size of them is really quite scary.
“An average pylon is 45 to 50 metres tall, these are more than double the size of that even after the reduction.
“We will carry on fighting it as we did before and hope it does not happen.
“TAINT is now better financially equipped, we have hired a lawyer who is ready to fight for us.
“The new plans have not appeased us – even though there aren’t so many it will still be a horrendous blight on the Dorset landscape.”
The revised proposal provides for the installation of five wind turbine genera tors each with a tip height of up to 115m and a generating capacity of between two and 2.5 megawatts (MW).
This would give the wind farm an overall installed capacity of up to 12.5MW, with the company predicting that the site will generate enough electric to meet the annual domestic electricity consumption needs, equivalent to around 5,500 homes.
It has also said that the local community, via a community investment fund, would be guaranteed a payment of £5,000 for each megawatt of electricity generated, or 10 per cent of the profts generated from the farm.
Steve Salt, planning and public affairs director at West Coast Energy, said: “We are pleased to announce that we have submitted our revised planning application for West Dorset Wind Farm to West Dorset District Council.
“We look forward to a continued engagement with the community as the application progresses throughthe planning system.”
A copy of the planning application, environmental statement and supporting plans and drawings can be viewed on the West Coast Energy website.
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