RES aim to drastically change all-important amplitude modulation (AM) noise conditions

Source: Den Brook Judicial Review Group | Action alerts, Comments, England, Noise

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A long-threatened planning application obviously aimed to demolish our unprecedented noise planning condition has been submitted to the West Devon Borough Council. It is now perfectly clear that corporate developer Renewable Energy Systems’ (RES) primary intent is for protecting corporate welfare rather than the well-being of local communities surrounding the proposed nine 120 metres (394 feet) high Den Brook wind turbines.

For more than 18 months we have been cajoled with specious evidence of false positives, threats of unenforceability and promises of ‘proper safeguards’ from the ravages of excessive thumping noises penetrating the very fabric of our lives.

But now the cat is out of the bag; the rabbit out of the hat and the evidence there for all to inspect. A cursory glance not only reveals overriding disclaimers from professed independent reviewers; no doubt handsomely remunerated by the applicants, but the worth of exceedingly technical mathematical processing proposed to replace the hard-won and straightforward noise controls with which we are entirely content. We further discover in the fine print that the developer is unwilling to take responsibility for its use.

So where does this leave the citizens surrounding Den Brook, and indeed, the nation as a whole should our elected decision makers be brow beaten by corporate sleights of hand into approving this blatantly fallacious planning application?

Well, for one, such a decision would fly directly in the face of legal considerations by three of the country’s highly esteemed Law Lords who, on hearing substantive evidence, judged that the newly proposed procedures are, in fact, unlawful. What’s more, approval of the applicants’ proposals would leave the surrounding communities entirely exposed and without any effective form of redress for when the excessive amplitude modulated thumping noise (EAM) is emitted all through the Den Brook valley.

It must be remembered that a top Government Planning Inspector deemed the current noise controls essential for reaching his decision to finally approve the huge industrial scale wind development more than three years ago.

Significantly and perhaps surprisingly for those who have visited relatively quiet wind turbines during the day, this often debilitating, pulsating EAM noise generally occurs during night-times when adequate recuperation with rest and undisturbed sleep is obviously fundamental for good health and well-being.

Concerns aside, we have to believe and trust that our elected local representatives with their vast experience of diverse planning applications, and charged with protecting the best interests of fellow citizens, will not be hoodwinked.

The Den Brook Judicial Review Group will of course be monitoring every move and assisting where possible to penetrate the applicants’ hidden agenda in order to expose the real truth out of the mass of misleading claims and assertions sadly incorporated within the application for seemingly only disingenuous protection of the applicant’s bottom line.

Since first mooted some eight or so years ago, the developer has consistently claimed that no noise nuisance would emanate from the proposed wind turbines. It surely must raise not only deeply worrying but far reaching questions as to why applicants RES now seek to demolish the only truly effective EAM noise controls.

Please lend your support to the Den Brook Judicial Review Group by making a donation to assist with our essential work – Email us: info@denbrookvalley.co.uk – Thank you.

Mike Hulme
P.P. The Den Brook Judicial Review Group
www.denbrookvalley.co.uk

Ref (view details and documents, and comment): WDBC Planning Application number 00393/2013: “Variation of condition 20 of planning permission 8250/2005/OKE (appeal reference number APP/Q1153/A/06/2017162) relating to amplitude modulation”