February 6, 2015
England

Wind turbines ‘twice the height of Beverley Minster’ would be blot on Yorkshire Wolds

By Trudi Davidson | Hull Daily Mail | February 05, 2015 | www.hulldailymail.co.uk

Campaigners fighting plans for another Yorkshire Wolds wind farm claim the amount of turbines peppered across the area is “frightening”.

Protesters have vowed to fight the latest planning application, submitted by EDF Energy Renewables, for ten turbines south-west of Driffield.

The 415ft turbines – twice the height of Beverley Minster – would be another blot on the landscape, they say.

Campaigners claim the turbines would dominate the area and be seen up to 43 miles away.

Stop Wolds Wind Farms action group, representing objectors from nine Yorkshire Wolds villages, now want East Riding Council to reject the latest plan.

Ged Hitchin, action group chairman, said: “EDF has plans to erect ten turbines on the doorstep of Tibthorpe, while Energie Kontor has plans for another seven in a similar scheme in Neswick, close to Middleton-on-the-Wolds.”

“We don’t want to see the Wolds ruined. The scale of development is quite frightening.

“The area is just peppered with turbines, we have enough.”

He claimed the rural Yorkshire Wolds, which are designated as an area of high landscape value, are being industrialised by dozens of turbines.

Mr Hitchin, of North Dalton, said: “The open nature and beauty of the Wolds is the main reason people choose to live and holiday in the area.

“We are against the effect on the people living here, the effect on tourism and the effect on the land, which is a sensitive archaeological landscape, dating back to the Bronze Age.”

Chris Wade, a music agent based in North Dalton, is also opposing the latest scheme, for farmland north east of the village.

She said: “East Riding Council has been promoting the Wolds as one of the few places of unspoilt landscapes in the region, yet we already have far more wind farms in East Yorkshire than in any other area, second to Northumberland.

“We are surrounded by wind turbines.

“When I go into the countryside I can see 30 of them. The worry is the impact it has on the Wolds.

“The landscape’s open spaces inspired the artist David Hockney, but we are in danger of losing that – everywhere you look you see turbines.”

Last year, more than 200 residents from 32 villages joined an Enough is Enough march in Beverley in protest against turbines being erected in the Wolds.

Campaigners are now drawing up battle lines to fight the latest application.

An online protest petition has also been launched at www.stopwoldswindfarms.org.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/02/06/wind-turbines-twice-the-height-of-beverley-minster-would-be-blot-on-yorkshire-wolds/