From: BobEdden@aol.com [mailto:BobEdden@aol.com]
Sent: 15 June 2012 11:07
Subject: Council turns up the heat on wind turbines
This is new from the
Planning Portal general news blog pages, the full statement might include
further links and info.
Council turns up the heat on wind turbines
Lincolnshire
County Council has toughened its stance on wind farms after councillors said
they wanted to halt the “unrestrained invasion” of turbines across the county
and neighbouring areas.The local authority will use the newly drafted statement as the basis for responses to wind farm proposals it may be consulted about, including district council development plan policies.
The statement from Lincolnshire insists that in general there should be a presumption against wind farms “on the grounds of potential negative cumulative visual impact, unless wind farms should be located such that they would not merge with the existing developments (on and off shore), thereby resulting in a negative cumulative visual impact”.
It also says that settlements of more than 10 dwellings should not have wind turbine developments in more than 90 degrees of their field of view, “this normally equates to 10km from windows in residential properties”.
Individual dwellings should not have wind turbines in more than 180 degrees of their field of view, the statement adds.
The minimum distance between a development and a residential property should be 2km, it says, unless through assessment it can be demonstrated that there would be acceptable noise levels within the 2km radius.
Meanwhile, in a separate but related development, the National Assembly for Wales’ Petitions Committee has called for faulty wind turbines to be switched off at night and for the introduction of buffer zones of up to 1,500 metres to protect nearby residents.
The recommendations come in a report produced in response to a petition calling for greater control of noise from wind turbines. The committee concluded that such measures could be applied if the Welsh Government amended statutory planning guidance.
The committee held a consultation on the issue and, as a result of receiving a large number of consultation responses from the village of Gwyddgrug in Carmarthenshire, visited two wind farms in the area.
Readthe Lincolnshire County Council press release and access the statement.
Roger Milne
14 June 2012
