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WIND FARM PROTESTS ARE
BACKED BY AN MP
Updated
12th April
2008
The article
below is reprinted from the Northern Echo, dated 11th
April, 2008
AN MP is standing
shoulder to shoulder with villagers objecting to a planned eight-turbine
wind farm.
Stockton South MP
Dari Taylor says the installation of 120-metre high turbines between the
villages of Hilton and Seamer, close to Yarm, near
Stockton, will be an
eyesore.
She said: "I think
the Government should acknowledge we already have enough to impede the
lives we lead. The rural idyll is something we should go to any lengths
to protect. Quite frankly, there has been a paucity of thought on this
policy. It is just plain wrong.
"I am all for
renewable energy, but not at any cost. I don't want them to scar the
countryside."
Broadview Energy,
the company behind the proposal, says the development will provide
electricity for 8,000 homes.
But residents, who
include engineers and industrial scientists, argue the turbines are only
23 per cent efficient.
There is also
concern that research in Portugal links the continual low
whirring sound of the turbine blades to vibro-acoustic disease,
responsible for migraines and triggering depression.
The MP said: "Wind
farms have their place out in the North
Sea
or on redundant parts of Ministry of Defence land, but not stringing out
in beautiful countryside."
Mrs Taylor said the
countryside around Stockton was already "hideously
disfigured" by pylons and overhead lines.
Dr Leo Hicks and
retired industrial chemist Dr Doug
Wallace are leading a protest,
supported by the two villages' 400 residents.
Dr Hicks said: "Its
not Nimbyism - it's not in anyone's backyard.
"Wind farms are not
farms, they are an industrial development. We are opposed to this
proposal because of the visual impact it will have on the area, the
noise and the health hazard - vibro-acoustic
disease."
Dr Wallace said:
"It is a piece of heavy industrial plant and it is going to be a total
blight on the area."
A spokeswoman for
Broadview said the turbines would generate energy for between 75 per
cent and 80 per cent of the time they were working and were crucial to
hit the UK and EU's renewable energy targets.
She said: "This
site was identified as being suitable for a small wind farm following an
extensive search of the North
Yorkshire and Teesside
area.
"It has one of the
better wind resources in the North-East. There is a major national
electricity transmission line and associated large pylons running
through the middle of the site, and an electricity distribution
infrastructure nearby."
She said the
company would submit a comprehensive environmental impact assessment
looking at noise, ecology, shadow
flicker.
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