PLANS FOR SECOND HOLMESFIELD WIND TURBINE RAISES SERIOUS CONCERNS OVER LANDSCAPE IMPACTS

Proposals for a second, 15 metre wind turbine on sloping fields at Little Lydgate Farm, Holmesfield should be significantly altered or abandoned say countryside watchdog, Friends of the Peak District, due to serious concerns over the cumulative impact on the surrounding countryside.

Protected by both Special Landscape Area and Green Belt designations, campaigners believe that the potential benefit of a generating of 15kw of electricity does not outweigh the effect the turbine would have on the attractiveness of the area. The existing 9m turbine already breaks the skyline and FPD insists that the impact of a second, adjacent turbine would be unacceptable.

FPD does support the development of renewable technology in the countryside and has supported several applications for domestic turbines in high quality landscapes but we could only support this application if it were radically amended, explains Friends of the Peak District Planning Officer, John King. We urge North East Derbyshire District Council to seriously examine their own development policies in relation to this application. We are clear that this proposal fails to comply with Council policy and therefore it needs to be amended and re-submitted or withdrawn.

To make the turbine less intrusive, FPD recommends that the height be reduced, it could also be situated lower down the slope and closer to existing buildings to reduce visual intrusion and even painted green or brown to help it blend in with fields behind.

If such amendments made the application financially unviable FPD recommends that the applicant could investigate alternative sources of renewable energy generation such as ground source heat pumps for water heating, solar panels or photovoltaic cells on unobtrusive south facing roofs.

North East Derbyshire District Council is expected to consider the application within the next few weeks.