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‘Monster 25-storey’ turbine set to ‘dwarf’ market town church in Devon
Credit: By Phil Goodwin, WMN reporter | Western Morning News | June 24, 2014 | www.westernmorningnews.co.uk ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
Campaigners are rallying opposition to a planned new wind turbine in Devon, which has been dubbed the “Hatherleigh monster”.
Opponents of the 253ft (77m) mast, which measured to the blade tip will stand as tall as a 25-storey building, have circulated a map showing how it will be seen for miles around.
Click on the image above to see a larger version
A public meeting has been called tonight at the community centre in the small market town, after plans were submitted to West Devon Borough Council for the scheme, at Heane Farm.
The Cornish renewable energy developer behind the scheme, Mi-Grid, said the 900kW device will allow a farmer whose family have worked the land for a century to diversify his operation and stay in business.
John Ingram, who lives with wife Sally around 600m from the proposed site, has delivered 1,000 leaflets showing the developer’s visibility map to promote the meeting.
“The turbine will sit between us and Dartmoor,” he added.
“We are probably Nimbys but we just want people to realise how big it is – it will dwarf everything. The first thing you used to see here was the church spire but now it will be this turbine.”
The project follows the erection this month of a 67m mast beside a Grade I-listed church, at Kilkhampton, in Cornwall.
Penny Mills, spokesman for the Campaign to Protect Rural England in Torridge, said the tower, at Runnon Moor Lane, was the area’s “first industrial scale eyesore”.
“It is absolutely appalling that these things are being permitted despite the Government saying that enough schemes have been approved to meet our renewable targets,” she added.
The turbine would power the equivalent of 525 local homes with carbon emission savings of 29,735 tonnes over the 25-year lifetime of the project, Mi-grid said.
Project manager Chloe Bines said the site is suitable as it is outside landscape designations such as areas of outstanding natural beauty and national parks.
“As with all farming businesses, the farmer is keen to find alternative income to support the farm and has explored a number of diversification alternatives already, however the proposed wind turbine provides the most suitable means of diversification as it will allow the agricultural practices to continue at the farm,” she added.
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