Oswaldtwistle windfarm bid approved

by Stuart Pike

March 02, 2010

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A controversial bid to site a 12-turbine windfarm on bleak, West Pennines moors has been approved.

German-based wind development firm Energiekontor can now erect a dozen 400 foot high turbines, on Oswaldtwistle Moor.

The planning decision was made by Hyndburn Council at an Accrington Town Hall meeting, attended by 50 members of the public.

The meeting had been closed by council leader Peter Britcliffe calling for the application to be refused on visual amenity grounds. The nearest home to the site is 600 metres away.

Councillor Britcliffe said that he supported renewable energy, but argued that windfarms should be sited offshore or "in Holland".

There were 136 letters of objection, citing everything from noise to the potential for vibrations to destabilise radioactive waste at the nearby Belthorn mineshaft, but these were dismissed by the applicant's agent Mr Johnathan Dunbaving and planning officers.

There were also 397 letters of support, including backing from Friends of the Earth.

The meeting heard that, if approved, the windfarm could meet over half of the borough's energy requirements and account for a third of a Lancashire-wide renewable energy deficit of 90MW.

Other speakers argued that it was time to reduce our dependence on energy from foreign sources and a chance to look to the future.

For full report see this week's Accrington Observer.

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John Duckworth (08/03/2010 at 12:41)

It was reported in the national press that last Thursday, our 2,900 existing turbines met just 0.1 per cent of demand, or 1,000th of the electricity we were all using. Brown is suggesting we are to build 10,000 turbines by 2020 - think about it - that's 3 per day!!!! 14 nuclear and coal fired power stations - 40% of our generating capacity - have to be closed down within the next few years. The generating companies are racing to build gas fired replacements - fuelled by gas, at unknown cost, from Russia, Indonesia and North Africa. Meanwhile the greens and nimbys are objecting to the companies plans to store gas under the Fylde at Thornton, so we will have only 4 or 5 days supply in existing storage if any of these suppliers go off stream. Mean while the tide comes in and goes out twice a day and night, oblivious to the vagaries of the wind. By the way who decided, and how was it decided, that Prospects alone would benefit from the £5m 'planning gain' (aka a bung) on a succesful planning application for the Belthorn windfarm??

Graham Hartley (09/03/2010 at 00:14)

Yes John, we may suppose that the haste to develop more generation resources is driven by increasing demand, where 'demand' includes mammon if we are not naïve. The government has agreed to new nuclear generation - a pity, many will think, that tidal generation technology remains less developed in comparison with fossil fuel and nuclear alternatives. The challenge, it seems, is to find enough estuaries with sufficient tidal range - and consider, as we must, the poor fishes!

DJ_Jaybee (09/03/2010 at 13:16)

When governments and power industries submit their statistics they fail to mention that they always work it out for us based on us getting our power from a supplier!!!... To have companies and households with their own solar panels or tiles, generating their own energy to store in deep cycle batteries - without having to pay "the man" doesn't figure to them.

They just want our cash.

Many companies have vast available roof areas for solar tiles and if the government provided incentives for these companies to contribute to power storage hubs that supplement the immediate local (not national) grid it would provide a real benefit. The current generation of solar panels and tiles convert much more efficiently and the technology is just going to get better. The odd hill with a windfarm is novel but if every hill was blighted with them they would become as unsightly as electricity pylons are across the countryside.

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