Action Group

About Us
 

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We know it has been a while since we were last in touch with you, so we would like to bring you up to date with developments.

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Video of wind turbine disintegrating.
Includes several other videos on Youtube website
 

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Campaigners are welcoming an inquiry into the safety of wind turbines after two came crashing down.
 

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Firstly, a Happy New Year.

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Enertrag lose appeal at Guestwick - Planning Inspector's report click here

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President Sarkozy announces new wind turbine policy.

(from National Wind Watch 6 Nov 2007)

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The Herald - Glasgow,Scotland,UK
The 200ft turbine at the Beinn an Tuirc wind farm in Argyll and Bute "bent in half" during heavy winds last week. ScottishPower, which owns the 26-turbine ...

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Three Scottish windfarms were "switched off" yesterday after a massive turbine collapsed in high winds. 

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Defence chiefs threw the future of East Anglia's wind energy industry into confusion last night after claiming that wind turbines could be a threat to national security.

(from EDP240 2 November 2007) 

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Green energy company Enertrag was last night slated for failing to attend a public meeting to discuss the firm's proposal for a seven- turbine wind farm at Hempnall.
 
(from EDP24 03 November 2007)

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Daily Telegraph article in Christopher Booker's notebook on 15/10/2007

A Government inspector gave the go-ahead last month to 10 giant wind turbines at Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex, famous for its 7th-century Anglo-Saxon chapel, the oldest in Britain.
 

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Membership of the Stop Linton Wind Farm Action Group currently stands at over 1,000 with more members joining all the time. This shows the extent of the opposition to this inappropriate scheme given that everywhere we go many people are still completely unaware of the proposal. We will continue to publicise our campaign so that at least the final decision can be taken with as many people as possible aware of the proposed wind farm and in possession of both sides of the argument.

If you have not already joined then, if you believe that this is an inappropriate location for a wind farm of this size, join today. Click to go to membership page.

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Sue Harrison StopLWF, Jim Paice MP, Kim Simmonds Linton Zoo.

Jim Paice attended a meeting of the Action Group on Tuesday 18th September at Linton Zoo and listened to the points made both by the group and Linton Zoo. He appreciated the chance to hear local concerns and afterwards said "Everyone supports windfarms but most people don't want them on their doorstep. That sounds selfish but behind it is a more fundamental point. Just as other power stations are located in the best places; nuclear stations on the coast for example, so logically wind farms should be where the wind is strongest and most consistent. There is little evidence that Cambridgeshire meets that requirement. I have undertaken to raise a number of questions to the Government about the planning criteria for windfarms and will report the answers as soon as I have them in order that people can make an informed judgement" Again the Group welcomes his support and looks forward to the answers to his questions to the Government.

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Blimp Flown on Saturday 15th September

Following the successful flying of the blimp last weekend, albeit curtailed by the fact that Duxford did not want it flying during their airshow ( imagine what impact 8 huge rotating turbines would have versus a small blimp) we will be flying the blimp again on Saturday from 9-5pm. Our experiences last time showed that the difference in visibility from different villages when we flew the blimp from adjacent to the various turbine positions was significant. Last weekend we focused more on the Linton end of the wind farm and so this Saturday we will be flying at the Great Chesterford end. We had a number of volunteers last weekend travelling around the area taking photographs and talking to people they came across. The universal reaction was disbelief about just how high the turbines will be and if you did not see the blimp last weekend then make sure you judge for yourself the height this Saturday. Also due to ownership of the land we were flying the blimp last weekend on the furthest side of the wind farm from Linton so the actual visual intrusion from the turbines themselves will be greater as there would be another row of turbines some 500m closer to the village.

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Great Response to Successful Public Meeting

Around 170 people, from a number of the villages in the area, turned up to the first public meeting organised by the StopLWF Action Group on the night of Sept 11th at the Linton Village Hall. The meeting heard a presentation by Mike Barnard on renewable energy, wind energy in particular and the specific issues that the proposed wind farm would pose for the surrounding area and the people within it. This was followed by Sue Harrison on the potential health issues and then Jane Davis, who has been forced to rent a house to get a good nights sleep due to intolerable noise intrusion from a wind farm 930m away from her house, spoke about the horrific experiences of her family once a wind farm started operating near her house. There was then input from the floor of the meeting. The overwhelming view of the meeting was opposed to the proposed scheme with only one person speaking in favour. Over 60 new members of the campaign were signed up, in addition to the existing members present, and many pledges of support received. The meeting lasted a good two and a half hours and the Action Group were delighted with the response and the fact that awareness of the scheme was starting to spread.

BBC Radio 4 - Costing the Earth, The Wind Rush Generation - exposes wind farms.

On 30th August the Radio 4 programme - Costing The Earth turned its attention to the folly of developing wind farms in low wind speed areas. It specifically talked about how in the Midlands and East Anglia wind farms should only be placed on the coast to achieve any reasonable levels of efficiency. It went on to use the Burton Wold Wind Farm at Kettering as an example of a wind farm that was only achieving 18% of its installed capacity. This reinforces our argument that the reason this site has been selected is much more to do with the fact that there is a willing landowner rather than that it is the best location. 

As the publicity blurb for the programme stated:
"Miriam O'Reilly reports on the current flood of proposals for onshore wind farms across the UK, with local and international energy companies hoping to bag the best remaining sites to erect wind turbines. But how effective are they? Research shows that we are frequently being misled about wind energy and that we are paying more to subsidise a still unreliable source of electricity."

What is painfully apparent is that as we have been arguing all along the Linton site is an inappropriate location for a wind farm of this size and the claim by Enertrag of 30% efficiency is not credible. More exagerations from Enertrag will surface during the campaign and we will highlight them as they appear.

In their response to the programme the BWEA argue that no wind farm developer would put forward an uneconomic scheme and hence there is no problem proposing wind farms in low wind speed areas. This is to miss the point that in low wind speed areas you have to build more or bigger turbines to generate the same amount of electricity. You are therefore increasing the adverse impact on the countryside and the people living nearby and tilting the balance of positive and negative impacts to such an extent that the negatives outweigh the positives.

Wind speed is so critical because the amount of electricity produced by a wind turbine is proportional to the cube of the wind speed. You only need to increase the average wind speed from 6m/s to 8m/s to double the amount of electricity produced. So by proposing wind farms in low wind speed areas you are increasing dramatically the numbers required and their adverse impact. It is illogical not to focus on areas where the wind is strongest when harnessing the power of the wind

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Enertrag Lose Appeal in Northants

Enertrag have just lost an appeal against East Northants District Council's decision to refuse them planning permission for a six turbine wind farm at Ellands Farm between the villages of Thurning, Hemington and Luddington. The appeal was the subject of a Public Inquiry and the Inspector turned it down on its impact on the character and appearance of the rural surroundings and on the users of nearby rights of way which, in his opinion, were not offset by the need for renewable energy. Enertrag's Environmental Statement accompanying the planning application was criticised by the Inspector for departing from standard practice and contained a number of important omissions of listed buildings. Given that their consistent arguments about the visual and landscape impacts were rejected by both South Cambridgeshire District Council and the independent Planning Inspector it does put a major question mark over the impartiality and thoroughness of their Environmental Impact Assessment, which is supposed to provide a complete factual assessment on which anyone can make decisions about whether the planning application should be approved or rejected. How much faith can we have that the information that Enertrag will provide to support their application in this case will not contain a similar lack of professionalism?

Another key point made by the Inspector was that the fact that he was very concerned by the proximity of a number of the turbines to Bridleways, well within the minimum separation distance recommended by the British Horse Society. He agreed that riders using the bridleways would feel threatened and that overall the turbines would dominate nearby routes and impair public appreciation of the immediate landscape character, which is one of rural tranquillity. Yet Enertrag in this proposal have again completely ignored the BHS guidance and four of the turbines will be immediately adjacent to the bridleway completely degrading the enjoyment of the horse riders many of whom would be unable to use it because of the increased danger to both horse and rider.

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Blimp to be Flown on 8/9th September

One of the most difficult problems is helping people to understand just how high these turbines are going to be and hence just how far their visual impact will reach. It is impossible to visualise accurately a height of 130m without some form of physical presence. One way of doing this is to fly a blimp at the height the blade tips will reach. Obviously one blimp will give no indication of the overall scale of 8 wind turbines with rotating blade each 45m long but it will enable people to check whether they will be in view from any location in the neighbouring countryside. It will also enable us to validate statements on the visual impact in the Environmental Statement accompanying the planning application. Typically developers tend to use describe local villages as inward looking and well vegetated with the conclusion that there will minimal visual impact. They do this without themselves flying a blimp to provide any factual basis for their assessment. By flying the blimp we will be able to analyse the actual impact it will have on all the nearby towns and villages.

It is intended to fly the blimp on the weekend of 8/9th Sept. weather permitting. Keep checking this website for more detail on precisely when. Then check for yourself whether you will be affected.

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Public Meeting 11th September

The Action Group is to hold a public meeting at Linton Village Hall on the evening of Tuesday September 11th at 7:30pm. Put the date in your diaries and come along and listen to the arguments. Also please mention the meeting to your friends and neighbours the more people who are aware of the impact that this wind farm could have on the quality of their lives the better.

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Enertrag Exhibition 25th September

Enertrag held their first exhibition on 19th July at Linton Village Hall. The Action Group mounted a presence outside all day and managed to sign up a good number of members. There seemed to be a majority of people opposed to the scheme and if we had not leafleted the local villages then the turnout would have been pretty low. Given that Enertrag have not completed their Environmental Impact Assessment there was little hard information and most of the content of the exhibition was general wind farm information. Apart from a few photomontages which were so biased in that you could hardly see the turbines at all. Makes you wonder what we are upset about!!

Hopefully at the next exhibition on the 25th September there will be a lot more facts to debate.

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Uttlesford Require Planning Application

We have received an email from Uttlesford District Council saying that they have asked Enertrag to submit a full planning application for the one turbine that sits within their district. This will be in addition to the planning application for the seven turbines within South Cambridgeshire. Within the Uttlesford Local Plan there is definitive policy opposing large scale wind farm schemes and it will be interesting to see whether Enertrag go through the cost and time of a second planning application or reduce the size of the scheme. If they do remove the single Uttlesford turbine it will have a minimal effect on the adverse impact on local villages as its location is the furthest away from most villages and there will still be seven turbines remaining.

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CPRE Oppose Scheme

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has joined the Action Group in opposing the proposed scheme and has issued the following press release:

THE WRONG SCHEME IN THE WRONG PLACE

Countryside campaigners say some of the most beautiful countryside in South Cambridgeshire and North Essex will be destroyed if Enertrag’s proposal for a windfarm at Linton of 8 turbines goes ahead.
Each turbine will measure 130 metres to the top of the blade – more than twice the height of an electricity pylon. The turbines would be situated on the hillside rising behind Linton Zoo and on top of the ridge which slopes gently towards Great Chesterford. They would be visible to everyone in Linton.
The panoramic views from the top of the hill enjoyed by walkers, cyclists and horse riders will be irrevocably marred by the turbines," said CPRE campaigner, Shirley Fieldhouse. "On a clear day you can see as far as Ely Cathedral. On the Great Chesterford side, the turbines will dominate the skyline above the gently rolling agricultural fields and copses" she added.
CPRE says the visual intrusion will be significantly greater because the movement of the turbines’ huge rotating blades will inevitably draw the eye and will be impossible to ignore.
"This particularly beautiful landscape must not be sacrificed to such huge structures," said Miss Fieldhouse. "CPRE supports energy reduction - more public transport, cycling and walking, better designed buildings. It also supports renewable energy options in the right place. It has not objected to wind farms in Fenland and the Peterborough area. However, with rural tranquillity under so much threat this is an inappropriate scheme in the wrong location".

For further information, please contact Shirley Fieldhouse. Tel: 01223 426514

The Action Group is delighted that such an eminent organisation agrees with our views that this scheme would have an unacceptable impact on the landscape and would degrade the amenity value and tranquillity of an important piece of open countryside so close to Cambridge.

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Linton News Article

In the August edition of The Linton News an article appeared concerning the wind farm. Link to article.  As you can see this only gives one side of the story and contains a number of factual inaccuracies. We will be asking the Linton News to allow an article which gives the other side of the story but please email the editor at lneditor@linton.info if you feel this article does not reflect the true balance of arguments when considering this proposal.

Some of the areas where there was some economy with the truth are:

The UK does have the greatest wind harbouring capacity in Europe but unfortunately not here! The site is in the lowest wind speed area of the UK. As the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines is proportional to the cube of the wind speed then if you move from a site with a wind speed of 6m/s to one of 8m/s then the amount of electricity generated by the same size turbine doubles. Thus the reason why the turbines are so high here - 130m to blade tip not the 85m to hub quoted in the article for some reason! - is that they need the height to get higher wind speeds. In a windier site the same amount of electricity could be generated with smaller or less turbines, with correspondingly less impact on the countryside and people living locally.
The cost of electricity produced from wind is higher than the costs from most other forms of generation. For an independent report then go to The Royal Academy of Engineering ( www.raeng.org.uk ) Report on the Cost of Generating Electricity published in 2004. This showed the cost of electricity onshore wind farms was indeed 3-4p per unit but rose to 5-6p per unit when you include the cost of the standby generation needed when the wind does not blow. Interestingly rather than the 4-7p per unit for nuclear power quoted in the article for nuclear generation they show just over 2p per unit for nuclear with coal and gas also between 2-3p per unit. If we achieve 10% of our electricity from renewable sources (mainly wind) then the National Audit Office has estimated that will cost electricity customers £1bn in higher charges.
The article claims that the scheme may save 50,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year but this is using a conversion factor assuming all the electricity replaced comes from coal powered power stations. The DTI. Carbon Trust and Defra all prefer to use the average of all generating methods which cuts this claimed saving literally in half.
On TV reception Enertrag will promise to solve any problems but will give no guarantee on how long that will take. For many people the thought of having a degraded signal for weeks on end will be unacceptable. Why will Enertrag not commit to a specific time limit?

To hear both sides of the argument make sure you come to our public meeting on Tuesday September 11th at Linton Village Hall.

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Scoping Opinion

South Cambridgeshire District Council have now issued their scoping opinion (Link). This is the document that responds to Enertrag’s Request for a Scoping Opinion (Link ) and between the two documents outlines what Enertrag will need to cover in their Environmental Impact assessment. The Action Group had made representations to SCDC about additional areas that we wanted included and by and large they are in SCDC’s response so that is good news and will force Enertrag to cover all the issues.