Crediton windfarm plans challenge

By [rbirch]

OPPONENTS of a planned   wind farm with turbines three   times the height of Exeter   Cathedral have launched a  last-ditch legal bid to block the   development.

The nine-turbine wind farm  at  Den Brook, near Crediton,  was  approved by a planning  inspector in December after a  five-year  wrangle between objectors and  developers Renewable Energy  Systems.

However, the decision to permit  the cluster of 120-metre turbines is to be  challenged at the  High Court in  London for a  second time.

 Mike Hulme, of the Den  Brook  Judicial Review Group,  said  they were challenging the  decision on a number of  grounds  including that the  noise condition imposed is defective. He said: “This places  my family in a very  insecure  and financially precarious situation.

 “We can ill-afford the huge  costs  of yet another trip to the  High  Court, but I feel there was  little  choice other than to appeal the  decision.”

He said their research by  specialist acoustic advisors  showed  “that there will be  noise nuisance problems arising from the  development” —  a  claim disputed by Renewable  Energy  Systems (RES).

Mr Hulme also argued that   guidelines to assess the noise   impact of any wind farm were  12  years old and had not been   updated to accommodate the   new generation of turbines.

“Not to adequately protect  families neighbouring the  wind farm  from potential  health-damaging  noise pollution seems to me not  only wholly unreasonable but  totally unacceptable,” he said.

“Sadly, we know of many  people  and families throughout  the UK  already badly affected  and finding there is little or no  recourse  other than to suffer or  attempt to  move away, often at  great personal loss.

RES, which says the turbines  between Bow, Spreyton  and  North Tawton, would generate  enough electricity to power  8,000 homes for at  least 25  years, said it was “disappointed” by the second legal  challenge.

“The wind farm, which has   been through exceptionally rigorous planning scrutiny for the   past five years, during which  no  stone was left unturned, was   awarded consent for the second   time by an independent planning inspector in December,”   project manager Helen Hall said.