Addingham braced for turbines D-day (From Ilkley Gazette)

Addingham braced for turbines D-day

8:10am Friday 13th February 2009

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A scheme to build massive wind turbines just yards from the border of Addingham could be blown away on Monday.

Yorkshire Water wants to replace its four 20-year-old turbines at Chelker Reservoir with two modern ones, more than three times as high as the originals.

But at a special meeting of Craven District Council’s Planning Committee on Monday the application is recommended for refusal. Councillors will be told that the two 125m (410ft) turbines would have a ‘significant impact’ on the countryside including historical sites, such as Bolton Abbey, Addingham’s Farfield Hall and the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

They will also be recommended to refuse on the grounds that the turbines would have a significant impact on neighbours.

Because the energy-producing scheme has generated so much opposition, the planning meeting will be held at 6.30pm at Skipton Town Hall to allow more space for members of the public to attend.

Councillors will hear that Yorkshire Water estimates the combined amount of electricity generated by the two turbines as 5mw. The electricity would be used to power the water company’s pumping stations at Chelker and Lobwood with any remaining going into the national grid.

The company estimates it would take six months to remove the existing turbines which have been there 25 years, and put up the new ones. Following two rounds of consultation, including one after the plans were re-submitted last July, 152 people wrote to the district council and 126 people signed a petition.

Objections ranged from claims that it would have a negative impact on the countryside and the industrialisation of the area to claims that Yorkshire Water should not be allowed to profit from Government subsidies. Objectors also raised questions about the efficiency of wind power, that they would frighten horses and affect property prices.

Objectors included Skipton Civic Society, the British Horse Society, English Heritage, Draughton Parish Council and The Ramblers Association. The Ilkley-based founder of the Yorkshire Dales Society, Colin Speakman, has also wants the plan ditched. Addingham Parish Council has remained aloof from the debate despite nearly one-third of the people who wrote to Craven Council over the plan being village residents.

The boundary between Addingham and Draughton Parish Council splits the reservoir in two but because the wind turbine site lies on the Draughton side of the border, parish councillors agreed not to take part in the debate.

Parish Council vice-chairman Ian Taylor said his impression was that the plan was not just an issue in Addingham.

But Addingham District Councillor Michael Kelly (Con) said: “Personally, I am just concerned about the height of them. I don’t think there is anyone in the Wharfe Valley who will not be concerned about the height of them.

“Certainly when it was first presented to us at the parish council meeting the concern was about the height of those masts as compared to the existing ones.

“You can see the existing ones from various parts of the village – to be installing masts of that height makes me very worried. I am sure that my views are representative of other residents of the village.”

The Chairman of Draughton Parish Council Meriel Curtis said: “We hope that planning committee members will follow this advice and turn the application down, and we will be delighted if they do so.

“We have consistently told the planning authority that the Chelker site is completely inappropriate for wind turbines of this size, not just because they would blight our local landscape, but also, most importantly for our community, because they would severely affect the lives, the health and the safety of the people living so close to them.”

Monday’s meeting at Skipton Town Hall is due to start at 6.30pm

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