breaking news
Plans to build a Shropshire wind farm turned
down following a public enquiry
Proposals for seven wind turbines up to 360ft (110m) high at Bearstone, near Market Drayton, were considered at a public inquiry in May. However, the Planning Inspectorate said the scheme would mean a "marked and unacceptable reduction" for nearby residential areas.
"In terms of appearance, in this setting the turbines would be seen as large, alien features in their surroundings," the inspectors concluded. The inspectors did accept the proposed wind farm would make a contribution towards the overall supply of renewable energy and the regional target.
Owen Paterson, Conservative MP for North Shropshire, and Bill Cash, Tory MP for Stone, Staffordshire, had backed the protesters.
Background
SOBER the group, formed originally in May 2004 in response to a statement issued by Oswestry planners, which outlined plans to erect 18 wind turbines together with associated plant in an area of Shropshire and the Welsh borders.
Based on land surrounding Cefn Y Maes, and extending north and west to cover some 113 acres in total. The plans encompassed land within Oswestry Borough, Wrexham County Borough and Powys. Following those early days, plans put forward by West Coast Energy Ltd failed to materialise, and little was heard from the developers for several years.
2009 - New plans announced
Recently however, news has emerged of further plans to develop a wind farm on land near Pen Y Gwely reservoir, but this time with a new developer - Severn Trent Plc current owners of the site.
Following the announcement of the plans, Severn Trent have now installed a 60m anemometer on the site, in order to evaluate the suitability of the area for the purposes of an industrial wind driven power station.
The arrival of the anemometer is a sure sign that Severn Trent are intent on moving ahead with the development, so its is now time for SOBER and its supporters to become active once more, and to do everything they can to stop the desecration of our rural landscape.
Looking to the future
Inevitably any development on this scale, and involving as it does such large structures, will mean considerable upheaval for the local communities during construction.
Earth moving, steel reinforced concrete foundations for each and every turbine, the widening and straightening of our narrow country lanes to accommodate the long low-loading HGV’s which will haul the component parts of the pylons and turbine blades to the hill tops. These vehicles can be up to 55m (180 ft) in length which will require the building of new straighter, wider roads in order to accommodate these large vehicles.
Then of course there will need to be a means or extracting the energy from the site, so that will mean the provision of new electricity pylons across more of our local landscape in order to convey the power generated to the national grid.
What will life be like post construction when the ' wind farm' has been built? You only have to visit our links page and see what other groups say about living under or near the new breed of 120m tall turbines.
Electricity pylons
On a slightly different but perhaps not unconnected note, Scottish Power Manweb are pressing ahead with their development of a new 132kv power line along a 20.6km route in the Ceiriog Valley and St Martins area, and speculation has it that this could in some way form part of the means by which the power will be exported from the Pen Y Gwely site.
Scottish Power Manweb have themselves issued a statement saying "There will be a significant impact upon parts of the Ceiriog Valley, St Martins, Pentre Morgan, the Shropshire Union Canal, New Marton, the River Perry Valley and the farmlands between Gobowen and Oswestry which together comprise around 30 per cent of the route."
So if this is what the developers are admitting up front, we can probably assume that there is worse to come.
Anyone who wants to support SOBER in its efforts to prevent this type of industrial development in rural Wales, should contact the group for more information. We currently have in excess of 100 registered members and expect this number to increase as people become aware of these new plans to develop yet another wind farm in Powys.
This county has born the brunt of similar developments, and a number of SSA (Strategic Search Areas) have been identified for further wind farm development.