Region could be carpeted with turbines

Jan 26 2009 By Dan Warburton, The Journal

The protester

CAMPAIGNER Andrew Joicey knows better than most the effort it takes to resist wind turbine applications in rural communities.

The Northumberland farmer is a member of the Save our Unspoilt Landscape, which was set up to oppose an application for turbines in Barmoor.

For two years the group fought to have applications rejected for six turbines in Barmoor, along with seven in Moorsyde and seven in Toft Hill, all in Northumberland.

And, in March last year councillors rejected the three proposals for wind farms.

However, appeals have already been lodged on Catamount Energy’s six-turbine Barmoor proposal and Your Energy’s six-turbine Moorsyde scheme.

Last night Mr Joicey urged others to fight turbine applications. He said: "I’m very alarmed by the situation. I’m not completely against wind farms but they are being applied for in inappropriate areas.

"I don’t think people realise the scale of these turbines. Some are 125m high, the size of a 32-storey building.

"In the rural countryside you wouldn’t get any other applications for another building. That would contravene most planning permission rules and it would defy common sense.

"The general public have been brainwashed to think that wind turbines are the only way we can provide power and that’s not true."

He said large Government subsidies available to developers of renewable projects are the reason why applicants are keen to appeal when refused permission.

The tactics

PLANNERS are hoping to reverse a "policy gap" in which wind turbines have been allowed to spread across the region because authorities have not considered their combined impact.

The region’s biggest planning document, known as the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), cleared the way for turbines to be built in locations across the North East.

But when council planning committees consider a developer’s turbine application they have so far only considered the individual impact.

This has meant many turbines been approved despite wind farms already existing just yards away. Now the North East Assembly is hoping to change this by carrying out another "cumulative impact assessment" in which planners will be warned of the damage done to the landscape by the combined effect of turbines.

The Assembly has already looked at the East of Durham and issued a document which councillors can now cite as evidence of why an individual application should be turned down because of its overall impact.

Assembly planners have also previously issued a warning for Northumberland councils following a study which revealed the "gentle hills of Northumberland" cannot accommodate the number of turbines originally planned for the region.

Although the studies have yet to be acted on councillors believe they are the first step towards a legally-backed defence against the spread of turbines.

Durham’s new council bosses have decided to take part in the latest North East Assembly £35,000 study into the spread of the turbines.

Experts hope to find out how much scope there is for further turbines in Durham, and which parts should be considered off limits.