March 12, 2015
England

Wind farm will ‘degrade’ Bridlington

By Stewart Paterson | Bridlington Free Press | 12 March 2015 | www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk

A wind farm which objectors say will “degrade” Bridlington’s landscape has been given the go ahead after the Ministry of Defence dropped objections to the project.

The Fraisthorpe wind farm had been put on hold over concerns the nine proposed turbines could interfere with radar defence systems at Staxton Wold.

But a new Lockheed Martin TPS77 Long-Range Radar System has now been installed there and East Riding Council has confirmed the conditions on the planning permission will be discharged this week, which means the wind farm can be built.

It comes after hundreds of residents throughout Bridlington and its surrounding villages signed petitions against the wind farm, which will now become a prominent feature of the largely flat sweep of coast between Bridlington and Barmston.

Artist David Hockney, who celebrated the local landscape in hundreds of paintings and drawings, had said it “would deface the landscape and the seafront of Bridlington Bay.”

Maureen Bell, Secretary of Bridlington Civic Society said: “I think we will need to take a photograph to remember what we have lost.

“It is so disappointing that our wonderful landscape which has been celebrated by David Hockney is now rapidly being degraded.

“One of our committee members lives at Sewerby and they reckon already if they stand upstairs they can see about 50.

“Eventually the wind farms will be a spiky collar – like the one they used to put on slaves – all the way round Bridlington.”

A spokesman for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation said a TPS77 had already been tested at Trimingham, in Norfolk, and they would be doing flight testing soon at Staxton Wold.

He said: “The MOD can confirm that the adverse impacts of the Fraisthorpe development upon the air defence radar at RRH Staxton Wold will be suitably mitigated by the installation of the TPS77.”

The Fraisthorpe farm was sold last November to BayWa, an international agriculture, building materials and energy conglomerate based in Munich, Germany.

Objectors to the scheme included 365 people who wrote letters to the council, two parish councils, Bridlington Town Council, the Ramblers, and English Heritage.

After being refused it went to appeal, but Government Inspector Ken Barton rejected the objections. While admitting it would cause “substantial harm” in the immediate vicinity and “slightly harm” some wider views, he claimed it would not dominate the wider landscape.

However other wind farms can already be seen from miles away along the sweep of Bridlington Bay.