Campaigners fighting plans for 13 huge wind turbines in the County Durham countryside are closely following a public inquiry into a similar scheme in Cumbria as they prepare a challenge of their own.

People living in the villages of Cornsay, East Hedleyhope and Satley - between Lanchester and Tow Law in north-west Durham - have formed an action group to fight plans by the Banks Group to build 13 turbines of 100 metres in height outside Satley.

Banks say the windfarm will provide enough electricity to meet the domestic needs of almost half the households in Derwentside.

But locals opposing the plans say the turbines will be a blot on the landscape on a road to Weardale and the North Pennines, parts of which have been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Now they are closely monitoring the evidence at a seven-week public inquiry currently taking place at the Shap Wells Hotel over an equally controversial application to build 13 wind turbines at Whinash, between Tebay and Kendal, bordering the M6 motorway in Cumbria.

In County Durham, planners from the local authority, Derwentside District Council, are due to discuss the Satley windfarm application in August.

Freelance designer and mother-of-one Erica Sykes, 38, of High House Farm, Satley, a founding member of the action group People Against Satley Turbines (Past), said yesterday: "These huge turbines will be situated 600 metres from our homes.

"The jury is still out on whether or not they are energy-effective, and whether or not they pose health risks. We already have some turbines which we can see across fields about half a mile away, but they stand at just 75 feet and they are not too intrusive.

"But we are closely monitoring the evidence submitted at Whinash. We do feel that these huge turbines near to us will blot an attractive landscape on the gateway to the North Pennines. There are similarities with the Cumbrian application."

Local county councillor Joe Armstrong, of Commercial Street, Cornsay Colliery, said: "It is not simply a case of Not in Our Back Yard. A study in Germany, where there are more windfarms, has questioned their effectiveness."

Banks had originally intended to install 22 turbines at Satley but had reduced the number to 13 and it said it had moved them further from the nearest houses.