Windfarm Wars – Episodes 3 and 4

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The observational documentary series with remarkable access that follows a global developer’s controversial six-year battle to build a windfarm in the heart of some of Devon’s most sensitive landscape.

Broadcast schedule (BBC2):
Episode 3: Fri 27 May 2011, 19:00 England & Northern Ireland; Sat 28 May 2011, 18:30 Scotland; Tue 31 May 2011, 19:00 Wales
Episode 4: Fri 3 Jun 2011, 19:00 England & Northern Ireland, 19:30 Wales; at 4 Jun 2011, 17:40 Scotland

Episode 3: Following the local authority’s decision to turn down planning permission for the Den Brook Windfarm, developer Rachel Ruffle now leads the appeal against the decision. A dramatic Public Inquiry is held and the local action group take on a barrister to fight their case. One man, local resident Mike Hulme, is increasingly disillusioned in his attempts to get the noise data he says Rachel’s company RES promised him. He decides to go it alone at the inquiry in his attempt to plead for the planning inspector to protect him and his neighbours from noise he believes will come from the nine 120-metre high turbines. When the inspector makes his decision, there are scenes of huge joy and severe disappointment.

Episode 4: Following their victory in the High Court, and with the windfarm’s eventual construction now apparently in sight, RES decide they should heed the judge’s words and hand over the raw noise data that local resident Mike Hulme says they always promised him. Project Manager Rachel Ruffle drives to Devon to do this, but a shock is in store. The dramatic events of the next few months lead to yet another public inquiry into the Den Brook Windfarm and as the battle draws to a close, all parties are still locked in argument. Eventually a decision is made, but as ever in this epic story nothing is as straightforward as it seems.