LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Clare: Setback for campaigners after plans for turbine are agreed 

Credit:  By Russell Cook | Monday, April 15, 2013 | East Anglian Daily Times | www.eadt.co.uk ~~

Campaigners are planning their next moves after being thwarted in their efforts to prevent a 78metre-high turbine being built in an unspoilt area of west Suffolk.

They claim it will set a precedent for others to be created, cause damage to the landscape of the area around Clare and Cavendish and pose difficulties in transporting the components for the structure through the narrow streets of the villages which are linked by the winding A1092.

Members of St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s development control committee voted nine to four in favour of the turbine, set to be the height of a 25-storey building, at Maple Hill, near Chilton Street, Clare.

It came despite a weight of opposition from a long list of groups and organisations including the town council, Stoke by Clare Parish Council, English Heritage, the Colne-Stour Countryside Association, Suffolk Preservation Society and the Stop Turbines Over Clare (STOC) action group.

But councillors over-ruled the protests and the 170 objection letters and vote through the controversial plans. The location of the turbine, which has 27.5m blades, a 4.2m-wide stem and a main mechanism weighing 30 tons, is near the spot where a similar project was shelved last year because of insufficient wind.

Ioana Parker, chair STOC, claimed: “The introduction of a vertical structure atop a hill in an area as unspoilt as this will cause irreparable damage to the landscape. It doesn’t bode well for future applications and setting a precedent is a huge worry. We now have to consider our next moves and what response, if any, we make.

“Despite all the opposition we were very, very disappointed that it was approved and the committee went against the wishes of the community. It does pose the question that if they are going to allow a single turbine why would they not allow others?”

The group is due to meet again at the end of the month to decide what steps they might need to take.

Clare Town Council chairman Keith Haisman said that its policy is that commercial wind projects should be at least two kilometres from residential property but that plans for the turbine, put forward by applicant James Sills, would only be about 700m.

The council meets again next Thursday, April 18, when a report will be given by Margaret Godwin, a member of the planning committee, who attended the meeting.

She said that one of the main concerns would be the construction of the turbine which would result in large vehicles having to negotiate the narrow roads to the site.

“We need to discuss the decision with the town council,” she said.

Source:  By Russell Cook | Monday, April 15, 2013 | East Anglian Daily Times | www.eadt.co.uk

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon