ALMOST 80% of people in a rural area of Northumberland are against plans to erect five massive wind turbines near their homes, critics of the project have claimed.
They say building the 126.5m-high windmills – each more than six times the height of the Angel of the North – would be a form of environmental disaster, because of the damaging impacts on life in the surrounding communities.
Green energy firm EnergieKontor has unveiled proposals to build the wind farm on land between the 14-home hamlet of Fenrother, near Morpeth, and the nearby village of Longhorsley.
Now local people who are planning to set up a formal action group to fight the scheme say that 79% of residents are against it, 16% are undecided and just 5% support the development. The claims are based on exit polls taken at two public exhibitions of the company’s proposals held this week.
Yesterday GP Dr James Lunn, who lives with his wife Gemma and baby daughter Imogen in Fenrother, and is a leading opponent of the wind farm scheme, said more than 130 people have also signed an online protest petition.
“We were very impressed with the responses of people who attended the two exhibitions, where there was some heated debate and very strong views given against the wind farm.
“Many were terrified of the effect it would have on the local economy and local communities.” Dr Lunn said there was a lot of ill-feeling over the fact that the developer had been involved in lengthy discussions with landowners, but residents were only given 10 days’ notice of the public exhibitions.
