July 17, 2014
England

Cuckoo Wood wind farm plans delayed

By Paul Berentzen | The Gazette | 16 July 2014 | www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk

Plans for a controversial wind farm in rural Wyre will not be submitted this year after the project was hit by delays.

Renewable energy firm RWE Innogy UK has said it needs more time to study wind data at the Cuckoo Wood site, off Band Lane, St Michaels, where it hopes to build five turbines.

A planning application for the 126m-tall (413ft) structures, capable of producing 10 megawatts of energy, was due to be submitted in the autumn but has been put back until 2015.

Alice Byrne, RWE Innogy UK’s developer for the project said: “In order to finalise the site design we need to collect more wind data from the anemometer mast on site.

“It is expected the planning application will now be submitted to Wyre Council in 2015. We will continue to keep the local community updated as the project progresses.”

The current plans, shown to residents earlier this year, have reduced the number of turbines from seven to five, increasing the distance between the wind farm and neighbouring properties.

Turbines at the north of the site were removed from the designs, with the remaining five consolidated into a cluster.

But many residents are still unhappy about the proposals, which they say will be a blight on the countryside.

Coun Vivien Taylor, who represents Wyreside on Lancashire County Council, said: “This delay gives us more time to prove these plans are erroneous and this is not needed.”

She said the revised plans had done little to soften public resistance to the plans for Cuckoo Wood.

“The strength of opinion has not changed,” she added.

“It would have been better if they revised the number of wind turbines down to zero.

“In all the correspondence I have had on the matter, I have not had anybody for it.”

Around 250 people attended a public meeting with RWE Innogy UK earlier this year to discuss the latest plans, when opponents lined up outside St Michaels Village Hall in protest.

Residents have previously raised concerns over the visual impact the turbines would have as well as the potential negative effect on tourists coming into Wyre.

For more details on the plans for Cuckoo Wood, visit www.rweinnogy.com/cuckoowood

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/07/17/cuckoo-wood-wind-farm-plans-delayed/