Planning brake call to stop wind farm spread

From the Echo, first published Wednesday 15th Oct 2003.

IF PLANNING safeguards aren't introduced to slow their spread, wind farms will eventually cover an area bigger than the North Yorkshire moors and Peak District put together, warns the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The CPRE report published today comes only days after a public exhibition was held in a North Dorset village outlining controversial plans to build a wind farm on Muston Down.

National Wind Power Ltd wants to put up a wind farm of 23 turbines more than 100m high on land north of Winterborne Kingston, near Blandford.

The firm has been carrying out an environmental impact assessment with a view to finalising its plans ready to submit to North Dorset planners later this autumn.

The aim of the exhibition in Winterborne Kingston village hall was to allow local residents to air their views about the proposals.

"We've had views from both sides, for and against," said Patrick Spink, PR spokesman for National Wind Power Ltd.

However the CPRE report warns that more than 3,000sq metres of the country will be swallowed up under wind farms unless the government changes existing planning rules. The CPRE wants ten new planning tests introduced allowing local planners to question whether new wind farms are actually needed in an area and consider other forms of renewable technologies.

Jill Hatcher, senior natural resources campaigner for the CPRE, said: "The government must get planning for renewables right. It must not blow it to the detriment of beautiful landscapes."

But Mr Spink believes existing planning rules are tight enough and need no alteration.

"The UK's planning guidelines are already the strictest in Europe. When planning a wind farm we go though several surveys and always carry out an indepth environmental survey," he said.

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