Anti-wind farm protesters’ plea

Apr 3 2010 by Brian Daniel, The Journal

Last night, the action group, the parish council and objector Bill Short, who lives at Kirkwhelpington, issued a joint statement urging npower and any other developers interested in the area to pull the plug on their schemes.

The statement read: “This inquiry has cost a great deal both in time and money. It has come to exactly the same conclusion that was obvious to local opinion at the beginning – too many wind farms – too many turbines.

“We hope npower will note this decision and stop further waste of time and money by withdrawing their application for Kirkharle and other developers to confirm that they will cease to threaten us with further speculative projects in this area.”

npower renewables failed to provide a comment for The Journal yesterday.

On its website, developer Richard Best said: “We are confident that we have developed a wind farm suitable for the local area and the Kirkharle site lies within a region classified as being a broad area of least constraint which offers the greatest potential for new renewables developments within the North East Assembly’s Regional Spatial Strategy.”

The approval for the Ray scheme could see the public inquiry re-opened, meanwhile.

The planning inspector who heard it recommended Ray be refused. But Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband was minded to approve the scheme and gave developer AMEC Wind Energy five years to find a solution.