Unpopular Northumberland wind farm goes out to tender

Jan 2 2010 By Dave Black, The Journal

A GREEN power company is to invite bids for the contract to build a 13-turbine wind farm in a North East landscape which has been dominated by giant industrial chimneys for decades.

Local people lost a planning battle a year ago to block the development of the 30-megawatt installation on land next to the Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium complex in Lynemouth, Northumberland.

Scottish Power Renewables was given approval to erect the 121m-high turbines by the Government after the now-defunct Castle Morpeth Council had refused planning permission.

The turbines will be 40m taller than the eight towering chimneys at the Alcan smelter, which have been major landmarks on the local skyline since the 1970s.

Scottish Power said it will be launching a tendering exercise early this year for the contract to build the Lynemouth wind farm.

At the same time, the company will be carrying out further consultations on the scheme with parish councils and residents in the area to keep them informed about progress.

A spokesman said it was hoped that construction work would start this year, but the timescale was dependent on the tendering exercise and tidying up outstanding planning conditions. He said: "We are hoping to have something like a meet the developer event early in the new year for parish councils so that local people are up to date with what is happening.

"The site used to be split between two different local authorities, Wansbeck and Castle Morpeth, so we still have to sort out a few things with the planners. Once built, the wind farm will have the capacity to produce clean, green energy for more than 16,000 homes."

The scheme was left in limbo in 2007 when Castle Morpeth councillors refused planning permission, after approval was granted by neighbouring Wansbeck. Following an appeal and public inquiry, Government ministers backed the recommendation of planning inspector David Cullingford and approved the scheme.

The decision sparked anger among people in the nearby villages of Ellington, Lynemouth and Cresswell, who opposed the wind farm on the grounds that it will hamper efforts to regenerate the former coal mining stronghold.

Former Castle Morpeth councillor Arnold Baker, who lives in Cresswell and spoke against the scheme at the public inquiry, said: "Clearly Scottish Power have invested so much capital in pursuing this scheme that they were never going to walk away from it.

"There is still a large degree of resentment here and the community remains very fearful that not only will they have the horrendous visual impact of the turbines, but also the noise levels will not be as promised by the company.

"What is particularly disappointing is that there is no community benefit coming from this scheme, and that is something I would like to see happen."