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Bronte country wind turbine plans thrown out
Credit: Miran Rahman | Keighley News | 8 October 2015 | www.keighleynews.co.uk ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
Proposals to build a second wind turbine at a prominent site overlooking the Worth Valley have been rejected.
Bradford Council planning officers turned down the application to locate the 48-metre high device at Naylor’s Hill Quarry, which is already the site of an existing turbine.
The applicant, Gillson & Co (Haworth) Limited, had argued the additional turbine would produce environmentally-friendly energy for a business employing 27 people, with surplus power to go towards the national grid.
It added the second turbine would slash the firm’s carbon footprint and make the company more competitive, noting the current turbine is reaching the end of its operational life.
However, council planners concluded the additional turbine would make an “unacceptable” visual impact on the landscape.
They said despite the benefits of renewable energy, the negative elements of the application were not outweighed by any “special circumstances” in its favour.
Their report states: “The proposed wind turbine would represent an encroachment of inappropriate development into the Green Belt that would have a harmful effect on the openness of the Green Belt.
“The development would introduce a further incongruous and widely visible vertical element into this sensitive rural landscape, whose historical and literary associations are also central to its wider economic value in tourism terms.
“The proposed turbine would be seen from vantage points and public rights of way over a wide area, and would result in significant harm to the character of the landscape that would outweigh the limited contribution towards overall renewable energy targets.”
Gillson & Co (Haworth) Limited has previously said the new 250 kilowatt device would require a 130 square metre concrete foundation base, and a trench for a cable to connect the turbine to the National Grid.
If it had been approved, the turbine would have been placed in a field of grazing land about 385 metres east of the A6033 Hebden Road.
The company said the turbine would be designed and located to minimise impact on the surrounding landscape’s appearance, character and wildlife.
It noted: “The proposed turbine will not be visible from the area around the [Brontë] Parsonage and [Haworth Parish] Church or the top end of Haworth Main Street near the Black Bull.”
The application proved controversial, with early opposition expressed by both Oxenhope and Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury parish councils.
The plans were also strongly opposed by the Brontë Society. Alexandra Lesley, chairman of the Brontë Society Council, said Haworth’s literary connections made it a place of pilgrimage for visitors from across the world.
She added these visitors would not welcome the intrusion of such a visible reminder of the 21st century into landscape that is so precious to them.
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