This site attempts to provide an accessible (and comprehensible) source of information on the numbers and locations of wind power proposals in North East of England and South East Scotland.
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1. A proposal for 3 turbines at Brockholes, near Grantshouse, has sneaked into planning with even people in nearby communities being unaware of it.
Objections should be registered NOW - there is a very real danger that, if there are few objections, the decision may be made by a planning officer under delegated powers rather than by elected members.
Details are available on the SBC website and it is possible to object online.
2. We hear that another front is opening in the assault on what remains of Lammermuirs landscapes: developers are scoping a scheme for eleven 125m turbines at Brunta Hill, near Westruther.
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See the SAVE THE LAMMERMUIRS website for more information.
‘A conference with expert speakers from across the country discussing key issues relating to the Government's fixation with wind as a major source of Alternative Energy.’
Organised by Bolam and Area Action Group, the Speakers advertised include:
Christopher Hanning, MD, FRCA, LRCP - Honorary Consultant in Sleep Disorders Medicine to the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, UK. He retired in September 2007 as Consultant in Sleep Disorders Medicine.
Dick Bowdler, BSc, CEng, CPhys, FIOA, FCIBSE, MCIArb - sat on the advisory group to the Govenment when ETSU-R-97 was drawn up and on the Noise Working Group until he resigned over the Government’s failure to deliver on its undertaking to research the amplitude modulation problem.
Bob Barfoot, Chair of CPRE (North Devon) - a member of the CPRE South West Region Energy Topic Group. He is a retired electrical/electronic control sytems engineer.
Dr. Phillip Bratby - has a first class honours degree from the Imperial College of Science and Technology (London University) and a doctorate in Physics from Sheffield University. He is a semi-retired energy consultant and the sole director of a consultancy company.
David Cocks QC - Queen’s Counsel who represented the Rural Exmoor Alliance at the Two Moors Public Inquiry.
See the Windconf website for details.
‘TOO MANY TURBINES FOR COUNTY?’
Durham Times, 16 January, 2010.
‘County Durham may be unable to take all the wind turbines envisaged for it in a regional planning blueprint, a study says.
‘The Association of North-East Councils commissioned studies to assess the impact on the landscape of meeting targets set in the Regional Spatial Strategy. Fifty turbines already operate in the county.
‘The study says that the North Durham Upland Coalfield, an area west of Durham City stretching from near Crook to Chester-le-Street, has 32 turbines, which exceeds the strategy’s figure of 20 to 25.
“Opportunities for further development appear to be limited without further change to the landscape character of the area,” says a report on the study to Wednesday’s meeting of Durham County Council’s cabinet.
‘South Durham Upland Coalfield, from near Crook to near Barnard Castle, has no wind energy developments and is not capable of taking the 20 to 25 envisaged by the RSS “without a significant change in the landscape character of the area”. An area called East Durham Limestone, from Houghton-le-Spring to the outskirts of Stockton, is said to be “nearly at capacity”.’
Sadly, ANEC may be whistling in the wind - the Government explicitly condemns the setting of limits on wind power development by local authorities:
“The general principle and rule is that the Government have no power to prevent applications from coming forward. That is critical. Furthermore, the Government may intervene in the plan-making process if they consider that the constraints being proposed by local authorities are too great or are poorly justified.
“... local planning authorities should not set arbitrary limits in local development documents on the numbers of turbines that will be acceptable in particular locations. It is a fundamental principle of the planning system that each application must be decided on its individual planning merits.” (Shahid Malik MP, PUS, DECC. Wind Farms (Northamptonshire), Westminster Hall debate, 30 June 2009).
The theory is, apparently, that the local planning system should weed out inappropriate applications as they occur rather than setting out a sensible planning framework.
But, as we all know, the Government has itself hamstrung the local planning system by introducing arbitrary call-ins for ministerial decision on the basis that any proposal, whatever its size, is “ of major significance for the delivery of the Government's climate change programme and energy policies”
The Government has also leant on local planning authorities and the Planning Inspectorate using planning policy guidance, requiring that more weight be given to renewable energy requirements than to local planning constraints.
Not satisfied with this, lately they have been attempting to further rig the system by giving extra weight to the supposed ‘time limited’ nature of wind development. Though how 25 year planning permissions which, almost automatically, receive further permissions for ‘repowering’ for another 25 years should be regarded as in any way temporary or short term, passes the understanding of ordinary mortals.
It has recently been announced that both Scottish Borders and East Lothian councils are not going to oppose the monstrous (30 turbine) ‘extension’ to the 16 turbine Aikengall scheme (which itself was recommended for refusal by the planners before the East Lothian Council approved it on the Convenor’s casting vote!).1
It seems that even the local planning authorities have given up on protecting the landscape of the Lammermuirs, accepting the reasoning of the speculative developers who are destroying the landscape that the Lammermuir Hills are now “a well established wind farm landscape”.2
Landscape designations, sites of special scientific interest, tourist interests and the views of local people have all been ignored in the rape of the Lammermuirs by the wind industry (with the active connivance of the Scottish Executive).
What has happened to the Lammermuirs gives the lie to claims from the wind industry and planners that wind development is carefully controlled, that “only a few” turbines will be approved and that landscape, residential amenity and the environment will be protected.
Please lend your support to the local group which is fighting a rearguard action to save what is left:
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1 ‘Enough is enough - no more wind turbines in Lammermuirs!’, Berwickshire News, 13 January, 2010.
2 Aikengall II/Wester Dod Non-Technical Summary, August 2009.
Aikengall II is a proposal for thirty 145m turbines on the Monynut Ridge.
The site is contiguous with Aikengall I (16 x 125m operating turbines) and the Crystal Rig sites (25 x 100/125m operating turbines and a further 61 x 110/125m turbines under construction).
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