A NORTHUMBERLAND couple are looking to cut their carbon footprint by putting up their own personal 12-metre high wind turbine.

David and Isobel Mathias have already taken steps to reduce the amount of energy they use in their rural home and feel the turbine is the next logical step.

Mrs Mathias said: “We are very aware of the energy we produce and we try to be good recycling people.

“We have done everything we can to reduce our energy and we thought it would be reasonable to try some sort of alternative to electricity.

“The wind turbine seemed to us the best way to go.

“We have taken expert advice from several sources and have been told it is feasible.”

The turbine, which will last 25 years, will have a maximum height of 11.45 metres – just over half the height of the Angel of the North – and will generate 6kW.

The energy it generates will be used to provide energy to the Mathias’s house, at Gatehouse, near Allendale.

The couple’s plans have angered neighbours, including John Blackett-Ord who owns the nearby Whitfield Estate.

But Mrs Mathias added that while she understood people’s concerns over the visual impact of the turbine, she hoped that their feelings would ease with time.

She said: “We just feel that it is one thing we can do to produce energy in a green way.

“I know people are very genuinely concerned about the look of the countryside, and so are we because we live here too.

“Although we think 25 years is a long time it is not a long time if you look at in the context of mankind.

“Hopefully in 25 years’ time it will be redundant and we will have some other cleaner and sustainable resource.

“It is our small contribution as a temporary stop-gap.”

The couple already use energy efficient lightbulbs and have insulated their home in an energy saving way.

The turbine would be situated a short distance from their house in open fields.

The council has received two letters of objection from people living close to the proposed turbine site.

Concerns raised include the closeness of the turbine to an existing public footpath and its impact on the surrounding landscape.

The turbine would be about six metres from the footpath, which is part of the Isaacs Tea Trail route, developed in memory of 19th century fundraiser Isaac Holden, which features on Ordinance Survey maps.

Members of Tynedale Council planning committee have visited the site and the matter is recommended for approval next week.

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Fears of 'serious visual impact'

TYNEDALE Council is set to approve plans to build the micro wind generator despite receiving two letters of complaint.

Both letters raise concerns over the visual impact of the development and the fact that it could lead to a proliferation of such turbines.

John Barker, of Highfield House, Whitfield, said: “I believe that this wind turbine situated where suggested represents serious visual intrusion in a particularly sensitive part of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

“The application has a huge visual impact with very poor potential returns in renewable energy terms and that it should therefore be refused on visual intrusion grounds.”

John Blackett-Ord, of Whitfield Hall, added: “The visibility of such turbines in the wider landscape is reason enough for refusing the application but it is worth pointing out that this turbine will be positioned near to a public footpath which is well used by walking groups.”

But a report prepared by planning officials recommends that councillors approve the plans.

The report said that although the proposal was “not strictly according” with local policy plan, it should be supported.

The report said: “Since publication of the Tynedale District Local Plan, awareness of sustainability issues, the use and encouragement of sources of renewable energy and the implications of climate change has become more widespread.

“On balance it is considered that the need to tackle climate change and the impetus to introduce renewable energy developments should be given significant weight and the development allowed.”

The decision will be taken in the council chamber at 6pm on Wednesday.

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Public have their say on 163m turbine

RESIDENTS last night condemned plans to erect one of the country’s tallest wind turbines less than 320m from their homes.

Families living in North Blyth, Northumberland, say they are firmly against the 163m landmark which is more than twice the height of Nelson’s Column.

Mum of one Susanne Carr, 33, who lives with nine-year-old daughter Rhiannon in Gray Street, said the structure poses obvious dangerous.

“If one of those blades come off then that’s it, it’s going to be about 320 metres away from my back door.

“We’re not going to take this lying down.”

Margaret Flynn, 53, from Worsdell Street has lived there all her life.

She said: “They are encroaching on the land when they should be put out at sea.

“It’s not that long ago that we heard a blade came off a wind farm down south and literally ripped through metal sheds, I don’t even want to think what might happen. No-one is going to be able to sell their homes.”

Residents’ Association chairman Paul Crossland said he plans to organise an official public meeting in order to reject the planning application before a decision is made in the Autumn.

Mr Crossland, who himself will be living under the turbine’s shadow at his home in Gray Street, added: “We want to know why they are going to be so high and so close.

“We’re not saying no, we know we have to protect the environment in a cleaner, greener form, but we just don’t want these new turbines.”

But Charles Rose, a director of Hainsford Energy, owner and operator of Blyth Harbour Wind Farm, said the turbines would be safe.

He added: “People have their right to make themselves heard.

“There is a big part of this development which will put Blyth and renewable energy on the map.”