October 28, 2014
England

Scheme for turbine meets an ill wind

Western Gazette | October 28, 2014 | www.westerngazette.co.uk

Plans to install a 74 metre high wind turbine at Gilcombe Farm near Bruton have been rejected by South Somerset District Council.

Bruton Town Council and each of the neighbouring parish councils also recommended the scheme be refused, while the plans attracted a campaign group Stop the Turbine at Gilcombe (STAG).

Chairman of the Mendip Bridleways and Byways Association Cherry Lawson also registered her opposition. She said: “There is a unique network of bridleways and footpaths over and around Creech Hill and riders access this area by using Copplesbury Lane from Upton Noble, Brewham and beyond. The flicker and movement of such massive blades can terrify horses resulting in riders falling and horses bolting.”

But a number of letters were received in support of the plans, including one from Charlotte Norton from Swansea.

She said: “Having grown up in the rural south-west I recognise the beauty and history of the area. I consider that the addition of a wind turbine in this area will not detract from this beauty, but instead become an additional feature of interest.”

Concluding the council’s decision to reject the plans, case officer Lee Walton said: “This is a particularly attractive rural prospect that is largely unspoilt and certainly not a landscape that has been degraded by outsized intrusive man-made features, but includes many of the characteristics of the understated English countryside. The combination of harm identified clearly outweighs the benefits resulting in the wrong development in the wrong location.”


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/10/28/scheme-for-turbine-meets-an-ill-wind/