Bolsterstone pulls out of Brixworth Wind Farm
Daventry District Council announced on Wednesday the 11th March that Bolsterstone had withdrawn its planning application for an industrial scale wind farm between Hanging Houghton and Brixworth.
Unfortunately it is likely that Bolsterstone may have withdrawn its application in order to re-submit a smaller application, which no doubt will waste more public and local money. It is not getting any easier for Bolsterstone as Torridge District Council recently said when they rejected a wind farm application “This decision sends out a clear signal to other would-be speculators like Bolsterstone, the property and investments management company behind this proposal. It was clear right from the start that this site had too many constraints.”
The SBWF team would like to thank all its supporters and CPRE for all the help given in fighting this planning application. Whilst we are in limbo, remember that there are another two other wind farm threats in the immediate area, at Harrington and Gt. Cransley / Mawsley and we hope that everybody will give these two communities all the help they can.
During the ten months that our campaign has been running, there has been increasing national support for our cause. When we started it seemed a more defensive fight against a strong wind industry, with turbines promoted and justified on green myths and distorted facts. These were supported and actively encouraged by the government, giving large subsidies, wishing to appear green and seeking re election.
Whilst the government still has its head in the sand and there is a long fight ahead, the perspective is changing and increasingly people are challenging the wind farm justifications as more facts emerge. It is especially relevant that The Danes who were the world initiators and are leaders in wind farms are now saying:
“Windmills are a mistake and economically make no sense.”
– Neils Gram, Danish Federation of Industries
“Wind turbines do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”
–Fleming Nissen, Head of Denmark’s largest energy utility
“For our industry, it has been a terribly expensive disaster.”
–Aase Madsen, MP, Danish Parliament and Chair of Energy Policy
The Danish Government have stopped building inland wind farms and are now only building offshore wind farms. They have built up a huge wind turbine manufacturing industry and they need to support it somehow. Germany’s CO2 emissions haven’t been reduced by even a single gram despite all their wind turbines. In fact, Germany has had to build many more coal and gas-fired plants.
Recent English wind farm applications no longer make any claims about carbon savings, now that one big lie has been exposed. We must keep reminding politicians of these facts so that they remove the bias from the planning system and end the massive financial incentives. Whilst these are driving the attack on rural communities and the pointless desecration our countryside, investment in other alternative energy needed to replace rapidly reducing supplies of fossil fuels is being neglected.