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Protest group set up to defy Coleford wind turbine plans
Credit: The Citizen, www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk 6 October 2011 ~~
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A protest group has been formed in an effort to blow controversial wind turbine plans into thin air.
Businessman Ronald Kear wants to build an 86-metre turbine on land at Poolway Farm in Coleford but residents are taking action to stop it.
The Dean Forest Crosswinds Group was set up following a meeting on Tuesday night held to decide on the response to Mr Kear’s Poolway Wind plans.
Crosswinds chairman Mike Thomas said the group’s purpose would be to voice residents’ concerns, publish facts about the turbine and the “threat” of more to follow.
Mr Thomas said: “The truth needs to be brought out into the open.
“There has been a lot of misinformation and ‘spin’. People here are definitely in favour of alternative energy in its many forms.
“We will support even these huge machines provided they are sited sensitively, but this is only 400 metres from people’s living rooms and that’s appalling.
“These are not empty, windswept hills. This is a small landscape of trees, hedges, fields and houses.
“One of these giant turbines is five times higher than anything else here and it would dwarf and overshadow everything.
“We just can’t let that happen”.
The group has promised to take its fight as far as necessary.
Mr Kear slammed the group’s suggestion that he had given out “misinformation” and said all the facts would be readily available as soon as a planning application is submitted.
“I expected a backlash,” he said. “To be honest, I expected a bit more of a backlash.
“I have never given misinformation about what I’m planning and you don’t put up a wind turbine without going through the proper process and presenting all the facts.
“The majority of the people in this group are those living very close to the site.
“I’ve never tried to avoid them, I’m being completely open about everything.”
Previously, he has said the turbine, which could power 670 homes in the area, will only be visible to 12 per cent of people within five kilometres of it.
He added it will be one of the quietest models on the market and also plans to pump some of the profits back into the community.
His plan is to give neighbouring Great Oaks Hospice two £2,800 pots of cash each year and leave two more to the discretion of Coleford Town Council, but possibly with conditions attached.
Mr Kear has given presentations on his plans at public meetings in the town as well as attending a town council meeting to talk civic leaders through his proposals.
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