Plans mooted for another South Warwickshire wind farm...

[dutchman]

Plans are being drawn up for another windfarm in South Warwickshire – as plans for the first continue to be contested.


Artist's impression of how the new turbines will look

Electricity company EDF have announced they could build up to 13 big turbines close to the village of Wormleighton near Southam.

The firm say it could power up to 12,500 homes and save around 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide being produced each year.

It follows a fiercely contested scheme in nearby Bishop’s Itchington, where another firm – Broadview - want to build five huge turbines, each the size of the London Eye, at Lower Spring Farm.

However, they’ve had two attempts to put up a weather mast to test wind conditions there rejected, and are now appealing.

Campaigners against the project – who’ve created their own group FRAWT – say both the windmast and the farm itself would be in the wrong location and would be devastating for the local environment.

Graham Margetson, FRAWT spokesman, said: “We live in a very charming rural area in South Warwickshire, which would be inappropriate to disrupt.”

Olly Buck, spokesman for Broadview, said: “We were surprised and disappointed that the Council’s planning committee chose to reject the mast for a second time because we had worked hard to amend the proposal in light of the Inspector’s findings.”

“The revised application was the subject of a thorough process of assessment by the Council’s consultees, including landscape and ecological experts, all of whom deemed the mast acceptable.”

“This was acknowledged by the planning officer who produced a thorough report recommending that the committee approve the application. ”

“As the recommendations were ignored, we are left with no choice but to appeal the decision and we now look to The Planning Inspectorate to approve our proposals.”