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We welcome your feedback. This page is moderated and your comment may take a while to appear. Please be aware that we will not publish comments that are rude, insulting, defammatory, or otherwise likely to offend.
As a Brixworth Parish Councillor I am researching facts behind the objections you raise:
In turn:
The area on which it is proposed is a designated area of Special Landscape Value and a wind farm would totally destroy this status.
• Please explain what protection or special treatment this designation confers upon the area in question.
The site is in close proximity to Brixworth Saxon Church, the largest Saxon Building in Europe and an international heritage site. It would also impose on other historical local buildings such as the halls at Lamport and Cottesbrook
• When did the church become an international heritage site
• Who awarded this wonderful accolade to our local church
• Where is the citation
• Largest Saxon Building in Europe – please explain – is All Saints bigger than Canterbury Cathedral and are there some larger buildings in Germany
It is close to Brampton Valley Way, a designated linear park regularly used by horse riders, walkers and cyclists.
• Please describe the effects that I will experience when I ride the Brampton Valley Way as i do at least once a week
Northamptonshire is a recognised low windspeed area and output from turbines would be low.
• Recognised by whom
• Is the venturi effect at play here will it turn a low wind speed into a harvetable energy source from a topological anomaly
• Please define what low output means
• Do you know specification of the wind turbines and what are you comparing them to
Noise from turbines is intrusive and in certain cases has made nearby dwellings uninhabitable.
• Please show me the evidence
• Please tell me what change to the ambient noice levels that I will experience
• How many houses became uninhabitable and where
Lastly, although this aspect is ignored for planning purposes, windfarms have a detrimental effect on local house values by as much as 20%.
• Evidence please
best regards
steve dobson
01 604 883636
Can I suggest that since Mr. Dobson is a Parish Councillor, he should read the Brixworth Village Design Statement for some help in gathering information. http://www.brixworthonline.com/vds/
Photo 1. All Saint’s Church, Brixworth – reputed to be the most imposing architectural monument of the 7th century yet surviving north of the Alps.
Page 5. Land north, south and west of the village was designated a Special Landscape Area
Page 6. Shows a map of the Special Landscape Area.
Page 8. Landscape Guidelines
Views identified by this design statement all need to be protected and enhanced and no future building extensions or infill development should be allowed to obscure them. The Saxon Church dominates the Brixworth skyline from many directions and views of the church both from within and from
outside the village as identified on the Maps 1 and 2 need to be protected. The view of the village and the church approached from the north along the A508 is especially vulnerable and developments, particularly on the industrial estate, must proceed very sensitively to preserve this. Similarly, new build should
not be allowed to obscure views from the village across the Brampton valley or towards Pitsford Reservoir. See Map 1.
How does erecting the equivalent of 6 no 125m turbines not contravene the Parish Council guidelines. Just for reference the Express lift tower is 127.45m tall, which is the nearest yardstick that I could find of a similar overall height.
Once again I find myself, a proud Brixworth resident, dumbfounded by the NIMBY attitude of some in our village. How we can trust those involved with the Parish Council to guide us when it took an eternity to decide, then undecide, then contemplate etc etc about where to put the changing rooms on the Ashway Playing Fields (hardly Wembley Stadium) as an example.
Who would want a wind farm near their home? In a perfect world no one. Those who oppose this have not come up with an answer of when in about, 50+ years when the oil runs out, then when the lights and heating go out in Brixworth what are we going to do? Everywhere in the UK and the world needs to do their bit and if that means we have a wind farm near to our homes then I for one, and the many people I speak to in the village accept it.
Interesting that so many people who oppose this are now experts on wind farm technology.
NIMBY or SHEEP.
Have you noticed the similarity between the current credit crisis and the proliferation of wind farms. The credit crunch was led by inept government’s taking easy options, looking for votes, unable to learn from past mistakes, with ’smart practice’ and easy money the driving force. The consequences have been painful for all of us. Keep up this ‘wind rush’ and the Brixworth lights and heating will certainly start to go out in 10-15 years time,
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The green and best way forward is to stop all wind farm subsidies and the invest these billions in energy conservation and the emerging energy alternatives.
come on Malcolm – that’s a conspiracy theory too much for me and many others I would imagine. I would rather people just be honest and say they don’t want a wind farm near to their home.
energy conservation? I don’t think cavity wall insulation and turning of the TV standby light is going to do much for us in 50 years time.
emerging energy alternatives? which ones, and the sixty four million dollar question, would you be happy to have them in or near to Brixworth?
I think looking at this site and looking around the village now it is clear to see that people are scared of the idea of wind farms. There seems to be a few people that are totally against the idea and are publishing any and all material even slightly against wind farms. This then adds to the uncertainty from others and produces more and more posters against the idea from people that are just worried about the appearance.
For one i think it is good to see one of our councillors actually impartial to the idea rather than the views we have seen so far from them. To call for the proof rather than just taking ‘evidence’ as gospel is the way we should all be thinking. We should all be making up our own minds rather than letting so called experts tell us how it is.
Didn’t we have in the newsletter a section where the expert admitted his evidence was 15 years old? Technology has come a long way since then.
For everyone that is against the idea please can you come up with some idea’s for renewable energy rather than just rubbishing this one, as a lot of people are in danger of looking like they have the mentality of ‘not in our back yard’. It seems that a lot of people would be more than happy to receive power from the wind farm just as long as they dont have to look at it.
In my immediate family there are three children, the oldest being 10, and i am worried now for thier future, i am worried about the fossil fuels running out and the effect to the environment. If this issues mean we have to build a (what I think is anything but an eyesore) windfarm to help the sustainability of ours and future generations futures then i think it is the least we can do.
It does seem as though wind power is not a viable alternative to coal fired power stations. No-one is saying that we’re going to switch over to wind power entrirely; that would be ridiculous. The National Grid is not a battery, it doesn’t store electricity for when it’s needed. It requires a constant supply and we don’t have a constant supply of wind, even offshore.
I agree that the people who are running this campaign are probably only concerned about the windfarm because it will spoil their neighbourhood, but that doesn’t mean that their points aren’t valid.
Remember: wind power is not the only green alternative. Wave farms (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6410839.stm) generate power all the time.
The wind turbines may not sound too bad, based on Bolsterstone’s literature — although I noticed none of their mock-ups of turbines included Brixworth Church, or any other building as a reference. However, what developers offer and what they end up delivering are often two very different things.
When the Brixworth bypass plans were submitted for consultation, they included a footbridge for the safety of pedestrians. Once the new road was completed, it was decided that a bridge would be too expensive, so local residents’ wishes were ignored.
The money that Bolsterstone promise “the local community” may, or may not appear. However, it will either go to Daventry, or it will go to the parish in which the wind farm is situated: Lamport. Either way, Brixworth will almost certainly not benefit at all.
Watch the video at http://www.stop-wadlow-wind-farm.org.uk/noise.html and then say you’re happy for 6 wind turbines near your house.
The switch to greener fuels is vital, but should not be embraced blindly.
I support Steve Vearlings views – I think its the least we can do too. You are right to challenge people to come up with alternatives as we have to accept that the status quo is not an option.
Will suggests wave power – I expect that would get a lot of support in Brixworth, especially as we live no where near the sea.
If it was put on Pitsford Reservoir (sorry, don’t know the logistics of wave power – do you actually needs waves or just water?) I expect there would be a ’stoppitsfordwaterwavefarm’ or alike.
It comes back to the issue I first blogged on. We are fortunate enough to live in a lovely village with many good things on our doorstep. We must not forget we are still part of the wider world and have a duty to others – even if ‘we’ don’t directly benefit from the wind farm.
It’s not about a lack of direct benefit. This could actually harm the area.
It’s difficult to find the truth when the anti- and pro-wind campaigners have such obvious bias, but after watching the video I was horrified at the apparent noise level. I intend to visit a wind farm to hear for myself exactly how noisy they are.
I have read most of the stuff on this website — which some of the commenters above clearly haven’t — and it doesn’t seem like a great idea.
I have also contacted Bolsterstone directly and asked questions, but the answers I got were very evasive. This makes me very suspicious.
I still await a response to my questions from the organisers of this campaign
If it makes you feel warm and cosy inside to see larger wind turbines slowly generating power next to your village thinking that you’re doing your bit, then relax, you’re right they’re great. However, how foolish would you feel if in the fullness of time it turns out that they are white elephants who’s real purpose is to generate cash for the landowner and the developer. This isn’t scaremongering, this is the real (business) world. If you’re a hardened cynic, put in ROC into any search engine then understand what’s driving the demand. Wind farms are subsidised by you and I when we pay our elecricity bills, all you’ll get in return is a deflated house price when you come to sell (I don’t need to prove this, try it for yourself!!); no reduced electricity cost, no significant financial benefit for the local community (revenue of £80m vs a good-will gesture of £10k per year for your local church) etc. If the government were serious, they would plough the ROC money into local community projects that directly benefit the local communities that these devices are located next to.
On a final note, as another blogger mentioned, electricity can’t be stored. Power generators need to provide energy when it’s demanded not when the wind blows. If wind stay small scale, it would be a benefit to the renewables mix, but this UK government is technically clueless and pushing wind as the primary source. The net result is a requirement to build more smaller ’standby’ fossil-fuelled stations which spin on low load (emitting CO2 !) for when wind contribution drops.
Don’t take my word for it, read up and seek out as much information as you can and be cynical, but most importantly open-minded.
Hi Will
Don’t forget that the developers like you to visit the local wind farm, there is normally little or no noise at the base of turbines. Noise being projected some distance away. This can certainly be over 2 km, all these noises are dependent on atmospheric conditions and are worse at night, when it is quieter and due to the greater differential of air flow at hub height and the higher sound carrying capability of the cooler night air. It also is affected by the terrain and often is more apparent in hollows .
The swoosh is most apparent at medium distance but the thud and low frequency drone is the more worrying aspect, this is caused by the pressure generated when blades pass the stack and is heavily amplified when multiple turbines operate in and and out of phase. As with strobe lighting not many people are affected but those that are complain of depression, migraine and worse.
A worrying aspect is that like mobile phones there are some claims that children are more prone to longer term complications. Which makes one wonder why schools and other small contained units are jumping on the bandwagon.
@ Steve Dobson: A lot of your questions are answered on this site and on some of the sites linked to from this site, if you had read it.
Having said that, I would have expected the organisers of this site to have submitted their findings to the Parish Council.
The business of power generation is generally based on scale.
A 1320MW thermal power station (standard configuration of turbine sets whether nuclear, oil or coal) will run at approximately 45% thermal efficiency. A wind turbine of 1MW, or to put it in layman’s terms, just a little more power than an old intercity 125 train, will run on average at about 20% efficiency (over say, a year of operation).
Basically the bigger the thermal machines, the higher the efficiency. The biggest single steam turbines being built today are 1500MW, running on ultra-critical steam, providing thermal efficiencies in the order of 55%.
In order to replace ONE standard power station and achieve the same energy efficiency, you would need a line of wind turbines 297km long. (supposing they were 100m apart and you don’t mind loosing power if the wind is not blowing for at least 264 of them) You will also need to install some spinning reserve, have rather a lot of underground cables (3 times more expensive then overhead) and keep your fingers crossed.
If carbon is your worry, build nuclear. Fast breeder reactors (developed by UK in Dounrey) are clean, very safe and provide reliable continuous power for up to 40 years.
The Severn barrage is a splendid concept. The second highest tidal surge in the world (after the bay of Fundy, Canada) will provide dependable power for generations.
Why build wind farms? Follow the subsidies…. City dwellers and non-engineers seem to think that wind power is a panacea to ease their conscience over burning fossil fuels.
It is a wonderful idea, build them offshore, where their efficiency is much higher, build them on moors and mountains where the wind blows. Don’t fill the pockets of developers with your tax pounds by letting them be built in unsuitable areas.
Just a quick question, how much energy is required to build one wind turbine? (copper smelting, aluminium smelting, plastics production, steel production, transportation and erection energy expenditure etc.) How long will the thing need to run before it produces as much energy as it consumed in its building?
By the way, I work in the Power Generation Industry, have been a Nuclear Reactor Engineer, and am currently a Steam Turbine Engineer.
If you want to know about brain surgery, talk to a brain surgeon. If you want to know about power generation……
I am always concerned when people end their contributions with their CVs….
Based on John Haysen-Smiths comments, would you John have any objections to a nuclear power plant next door to Brixworth if it safer, cleaner and more effective?
In response to Ashley Riley, I would welcome a nuclear plant next door to Brixworth, though that is very unlikely to happen. We are pretty far from any reliable sources of water, i.e. the sea, or a guaranteed river supply, so the rules that apply to the nuclear industry would not let a reactor be built here.
A nuclear reactor plant would be less noisy than wind turbines, and would at least properly serve it’s intended purpose of reliably producing usable power.
The reason I added what I do for a living is because it is relevant to the discussion, and discloses any personal bias I may have. It’s called being honest and open!
There’s no denying that nuclear power is more reliable… but what happens to the toxic waste?
The toxic waste produced so far due to civil power nuclear technology is split into 3 major categories, high, medium and low level waste. The majority of the waste is low level (in the region of 85%), the medium level waste accounts for something like 10% and the high level 5% (figures are very general, but do some research yourself and you will see they are about right). The high level waste will need looking after for some considerable time in deep storage. The US are constructing such a facility in Yukka mountain. The Swedes and Finns have already constructed such suppositories and the UK is belatedly following suit.
The medium and low level waste is safe in a relatively short time. Indeed, low level waste usually has a lower radio nuclide count than background and comprises of tools, clothing, used components etc.
Low volumes of high level waste are easy to store safely for a very long time. Just keep away from it, spend very little time in its presence and shield it correctly and it will have no detrimental effect on any form of life.
The topic of this HYS forum is the proposed Brixworth wind farm though.
I just do not think, having looked at most of the information on this site, and knowing people who work in this specialized field, that this area is right for such a development.
As I have said before, put the wind farms off shore, on moors or mountains where they will at least be a little more efficient. I do not think that the benefits of using this technology here outweigh the disadvantages of hosting such machines in this environment, and as such I oppose their sighting near Brixworth.
I presume the subsidy benefits will be pretty good for whoever applies for them though. Why we as a community should be inconvenienced just to enrich someone else is an argument I find hard to comprehend.
I protest against the wind farm and wind turbine proposals for Brixworth.
It has been quite pathetic how the developers concerned with the current application have tried to influence public support by organising bus trips to local wind turbines. Thankfully these attempts have been seen for exactly what they were. Misrepresentations of their actual efficiency and contrary to environmental policies, motivated by greed.
The proposal for a wind farm or for wind turbines for this area is a nonsense. For it to be identified as a viable source giving an economic return from local wind energy and to ignore the damage it will cause would be unfortunate.
Enriching our environment is a basic tenet of planning law. Following a full exploration of the facts, I urge that the application for a wind farm or for wind turbines in or around Brixworth be rejected on planning grounds as misguided and inappropriate. It is not any part of the application to consider what is motivating the application but let us be clear it is pure greed.
The application is misguided because it is so clearly detrimental to our enjoyment of the countryside our wildlife and puts our health at some risk.
The developers have not tested the wind energy potential because it would (a) attract attention of a further application to site a wind speed mast and (b) they know the wind speed results would tell them; as the Pitsford weather station results show, wind speeds in the vicinity are below the efficient operating speeds of wind turbines.
What the developers do not want to hear is how a wind farm will affect for the worse, our riding community, wildlife, our landscape views, our use of the Brampton Valley Way and the health of whose who find themselves close to a wind turbine or who have hearing or sleep difficulties made worse by their noise.
It is an inappropriate application because this proposal has the potential to irreparably scar the landscape. The views we enjoy looking north from Chapel Brampton across to Brixworth and from Spratton across the Brampton valley to Brixworth will be destroyed. If this proposal is allowed to go ahead, we on the eastern side of Spratton will have a view of at least 8 wind turbines which will ruin the view of Brixworth spire. The view from Hazelbech looking south to Pitsford would also be ruined and for those in Hanging Houghton their southerly views would be utterly devastated.
All of this detriment and jeopardy to our landscape, wildlife and enjoyment of peace, good health and quiet for what? Where is the planning gain? It is not a planning gain to line the short term pockets of the agents sponsoring this application and their developer clients.
It is notable that some of these agents have already divested themselves of their own local properties and move elsewhere. Very sensible they have been too, given the home devaluation that will occur and before risking family ill health, of a horse being spooked and throwing its rider and of having to endure comments about the noise and sleepless nights and of remember what the view used to be like.
The developers will, I hope, get a very clear message from our local government planners that they should take their turbines to a place where they will work efficiently, and not harm the environment or damage the local community. The benefit to the community and the environment of sending this message is overwhelming.
The applications should be rejected on the very obvious detrimental grounds of environmental damage to the Brampton valley and its wild life; the noise and possible ill health affect for those living within ear shot; and prejudicial visual affect and impact it will have on the landscape from which we currently get such immense pleasure.
I ask that our local government planners reject the application.
Mercedes wind turbines
We have an inadequate three weeks to consider a 250 page application from Mercedes High Performance Engines, to build two 127m high turbines on their Brixworth site. These turbines will dominate the village and have more impact on Brixworth than the Lodge Farm proposal.
Mercedes have ignored all but the biased wind industry derived information on Health and Safety. There is a well reasoned case for 2 km exclusion zones round larger turbines. They propose putting a turbine in the car park, just a few metres from the factory. Apart from turbine malfunction, this also leads to possible risks to employees from low frequency noise. Here they again hide behind outdated wind industry justifications. There are many serious wind turbine scientific studies linked to our web site, Wind Turbines; Noise, Health & Human Rights issues being a good starting point.
Where are the wind speed records from their anemometer mast? It is the residents and employees who will have to face any negative consequences. Are we are not considered adult enough to share in the justifications for this huge impact on the village and our countryside? Or perhaps Mercedes have something to hide.
Apart from shadow flicker which they will ‘discuss’ they don’t use the word stop, they say there will no other problems. What have they then to lose by offering compensation to those whose health might suffer from the noise, or those who house value plummets. They say no evidence of property devaluation associated with turbines. Do they think that people desperate to sell are going to advertise that they are blighted and risk lowering the value even more. We the tax payers and energy users will be giving them up to £400,000 in subsidies annually, or do they also feel we should all pay towards their electricity costs.
Mercedes are an important well regarded local company, we hope they will reconsider and withdraw this scheme that could well prove to be a large negative impact on the community.
It’s about time people started standing up for windfarms in this country. Over the next ten years our electricity demand will rise with current supply unable to meet this demand. Would the Nimbys that are opposed to windfarms live without electricity for their beliefs? Or would they be prepared to have a nuclear power station on their doorstep in response to these energy demands?I’m sure they would be the first people to complain, try coming up to the west coast of Cumbria and see the damaged landscape due to Sellafield, where houses can be picked up for as little as £50,000..I’d sooner have a quiet windfarm outside my house any day!
@ james Taylor: If you’d read this website, watched the video or even bothered to read some of the other comments, you would know that there are plenty of alternatives (that don’t necessarily include nuclear power) to putting wind turbines in a low-wind area.
A quiet windfarm is one thing, but the problem is that the evidence appears to show that the wind turbines are not quiet, unless you’re standing beneath them.
Read some articles. Watch the video. But don’t just come here with your mind made up just so you can have your say without reading what anyone else has written. That’s insulting to the pro- and anti-windfarm authors on this site.
Remember: wind power is a political buzzword. It is not the only source of “green” energy, it is not the most effective, and it is not the most reliable.
is it true. germany invades brixworth. with blimps over the weekend at mercedes benz , with testing to wind turbine heights, to anoy us villages, to all move out and turn brixworth into f1 city, the old saying give an inch take a mile, or a village . as were the highest thing betweed here and moscow in a straight line on a clear day will mr putin see marcedes windmills going round. brixworth 600ft above sea level all ready plus the hight of these wind mills. will thay need lights, as on many occasion the air force and milatry fly low over here, could there be a disarster waiting to happen. at someone trying to make a couple of bob, under saving the enviorment ! weve got thousands of tons of other peoples waste buried in brixworths back garden, with a sixteen cylinder gas engine running on methane thats bubbling away now, and switched on in leeds. when electicity is in demand, money ! what do us villages get for it , l bet some of us didnt no we produce electic all ready, is brixworth a soft touch, industial estate gets bigger, now wind farm. noise, traffic. lose of quite peacefull countryside. unsetting people, who live and work to make this a community a nice and peacefull place to live. i dont want to see 9 wind mills waving at me making my way home from mkt haourbough, northampton, daventry, wellingboughand miles away. i say no
nine wind turbines sited in the valley around the northside of the vilage and around mercedes part of industial estate and near homes. brixworth is a geohazard area, remember these yellow boxes around the house. testing radon gas for high levels, many homes plus school have fans running 24/7 to keep levels down, will these turbines make turbulence in the air and disrupt natural absortion to the air, or concentrate airbourn radon gas to high levels over the vilage, thats my concern. should this be studed by a health protection agencys and hse, and national radiation authorties. before any planing concent is given as these turbines could upset the the enviromental balance. ps dont till mercedes as we could be fighting a nuclear reactor in the future.
if you dont want the wind farm your just foolish. im all for the windfarm whats not to like about free energy for now and the future ? if you think they are ugly just paint them or something. they make next to no noise and would be a great credit to Brixworth. A final point is to tell all those wasting their time and wasting lots of paper to stop putting aload of nonsense through mine and others doors your just killing trees with your nonsence ideas and i think you should listen to everybodies veiws not just your selfish owns, many people are for the windfarm !!!!!! peace out.
You people disgust me. Your all up for buying concentrated detergents, recycling a few cans, and getting energy efficient washing machines. but ist all just for show, you want to look as though you care, just putting on your face for the neighbours.
but then when when you get the oppurtunity to actualy make a difference to global warming, no, no,no. you dont want a few wind turbines ‘ruining the view’.i dont even think that ugly, they certanly look a lot better than some dirty concrete tower sticking up from a coal power station.
but even if you dont like the look of them, there is slightly more pressing matters at hand, for example the global temperatures that are rocketing up, way ahead of what has been predicted, and threating to destroy peoples homes through rising sea levels, and to cause mass death and destruction, from an increase in disease due to warmer climates, and an increase in hurricane activity…. but no, none of that matters, just so long as youve got a nice view out your window!
and as for the noise level and the reduction in house prices. well, it could be a lot a worse, at least you aint living by an airport, or in town centre, an to be honest, ive seen wind turbines up close, they realy arent that noisy. and if your worried about the value of your home, then you must be considering leaving the area anyway, so do it now before they build the wind farm.
anyway, to cut a long story short, the majority of people who are opposed to this wind farm are a bunch of hippocrits who care about nothing but themselves.
have a nice day wont you…..
ahh, delete my comment ay, why. did it contain foul or offensive language? no, you just didnt like what you was reading. you just deleted it and forget it ever happened..
i hope they build a wind turbine in the moderators front garden…
@ “the voice of reason”: You obviously have your opinion and no amount of facts to the contrary will change that.
I actually don’t mind the look of wind turbines, they’re quite elegant in an industrial way. I certainly don’t think it is worth campaigning against them on the grounds of aethestics if they are a realistic green alternative to conventional power sources.
But they aren’t.
Read up on this fact. Not just on this website, but all over the net. It would take thousands of wind turbines to replace a single coal-fired power station, and that’s if they all generated the required amounts of energy all the time, which they wouldn’t.
Remember: surplus electricity generated by wind turbines cannot be stored for consumption when the wind isn’t blowing. There are no giant batteries feeding the National Grid. Low wind = no electricity.
I strongly support the installation of renewable energy sources, but I am not willing to throw money away on lip-service solutions which do not solve the problem but simply help developers to get richer at our expense.
And your second comment illustrates the fact that you didn’t even read the text at the top of this page (”your comment may take a while to appear”).
And wishing for a turbine in the moderators [sic] front garden doesn’t make your opinions seem particularly mature…
I have read all I can about wind energy for some while, the clearer the facts become the less credible is the case for wind farms. I hope I am as ‘green’ as most, I do not live near to any of the proposed wind farms and I strongly object to being held over a barrel by current energy suppliers. No one disputes the need to replace diminishing fossil fuels, which will be used up in some 50 to 150 years. The short term answer is in conventional and nuclear power, energy saving, new technology and research into other alternatives. Wind farms are not the answer, they are not viable and merely spoil the equally valuable and diminishing countryside.
The Danes are the world initiators and leaders in wind farms, read what they 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
Read the full article at
http://www.wind-watch.org/alerts/2009/02/26/is-wind-power-really-green-preserve-grey-highlands-ad/
Keep up this ‘wind rush’ and the Brixworth lights will certainly start to go out in 10-15 years time.’
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I’ve read quite a few of the letters for & against wind farms. We have to find an alternative source from somewhere, anywhere. If we are supposed to be getting warmer then I presume we have more Sun ie:- heat = solar panels ?. I also read the bumf about wind turbines lasting for 25yrs. & then knock them down again, seems to me that it is very short sighted long term planning for the children who will be adults by the time there gone (unless it would give atomatic planning to build again) & somebody will be laughing all the way to the bank.
I personally do not want these massive structures anywhere near Brixworth, someone has already proved that the wind speed is far lower than is needed to make it a viable site. we have to find other ways to generate power.
COSTS OF WIND FARM APPLICATIONS
Often overlooked in the passionate emotions triggered by planning applications are the cost of these to Daventry and thus directly to us as Council Tax payers.
The DDC properly must evaluate thoroughly a massive scoping report, followed by an Environmental Impact Assessment of equal size or larger together with accompanying formal submissions. Meetings with applicants and revised submissions are often then tendered. Statutory consultees must be alerted and their responses monitored and evaluated. All followed by a similar but perhaps less time consuming evaluations of objections. That is the start. A full case must then be submitted to the Planning Committee, their queries answered.
While a fee is charged to the applicant, based customarily on the area covered by the application, this must often be far less than the real economic cost of the time and resources as above applied. For wind farms it may be calculated only on the actual area occupied by the foundations, roads and infrastructure rather than that of the whole field they occupy.
Council Tax payers foot the bill for the balance.
Worse, if applications are withdrawn and new (effectively revised) applications are submitted for the same location with almost identical aims, the whole process is repeated and considerable further excess costs passed to residents.
It is essential that questions are asked as to “why the original withdrawal?” – was it incompetent, inappropriate or just patently unsuitable for the area.
The DDC, for their taxpayers, should advise applicants that in the event that the new application has similar characteristics or fails to take the original problem issues into account that they would be entitled to full recovery of all costs incurred.
If Bolsterstone submit a second application at Lodge Farm, why should we bare the unrecovered costs?
Hi, Weighing up the arguments seems to be irrelevant, it is obvious to me that the area is one of the rare areas of beautiful and unspoilt Northamptonshire countryside, so I believe the question is, why would this location be better suited to a wind farm that say, Norfolk, or some other industrial brown field site. I have nothing against wind farms, I work in the sustainability sector and I think on their own they are very impressive, but not in such lovely countryside. I really hope that local government listens instead of just coming back with a smaller even less energy efficient proposal, the idea just seems poorly thought out and its motives highly dubious. Looking at the Brixworth Wind farm website it is obvious they are not lacking in funds, which is unfortunate as we should be spending money to preserve our countryside not decimating it for the sake of rather insignificant energy production. If we want to tackle the root causes of climate change it will take a lot more than a few small wind farms, it will need cities to be powered by vast wind farms using the acres of disused brown field sites we have in this country as a platform.
My name is Michael Sweetmore: I recently began a petition on the 10 Downing street website against the implementation of wind farms.
If you would like to sign this enter “to decrease windfarm reliance” as a search on the site, tab on petitions and find my name and send this to all interested parties.
Number10.gov.uk.
Hope to drum up some support?
Regards Michael Sweetmore