Wind monitoring mast application in Stinchcombe is refused (From Gazette Series)

Wind monitoring mast application in Stinchcombe is refused

1:56pm Wednesday 14th October 2009

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PLANNING bosses have refused permission for a wind monitoring mast to be built in Stinchcombe.

Members of Stroud District Council's development control committee gave a majority vote against the application by green energy company Ecotricity on Tuesday.

The company wanted to build the 70-metre mast at Standle Farm on land between the M5 and the A38.

The mast would have taken wind speed readings, which would then have been used by Ecotricity to determine whether the site was viable as a location for a wind farm.

The company has made it known that it wants to build eight 120-metre high wind turbines in the village.

More than 20 local residents attended the meeting to hear councillors debate the application.

David Leggate, a member of the Save Berkeley Vale campaign group who was at the meeting, said: "I think it was given a very good airing and it was a jolly good verdict. We’re very pleased but I suspect we have won the battle but not the war."

Andy Cheshire, another member of Save Berkeley Vale, said: "We are very pleased with the decision. It was a very thorough and searching discusion about the application which we were also pleased about.

"There's obviously very strong feeling about this mast and any turbine development in Stinchcombe but also the surrounding area."

Stroud District Council received almost 500 letters of objection to the application, with the majority of local people raising concerns about the mast's visual impact, noise and potential danger to passing aircraft.

Concerns were also raised about a possible future application for the wind farm, however, this was ruled out as a valid reason to object to the mast application.

Pippa Moore, planning officer at Stroud District Council, said: "This application has to be considered on its own merits, not on what may be proposed in the future."

Cllr David Wride, a member of the development control committee and councillor for the Vale ward, supported residents' objections.

He said: "If you look at the supporters they tend to be people who don't live very near the site.

"This is against the area of outstanding natural beauty. This is absolutely the wrong place for a mast or any form of industrial structure."

However, at the same development control meeting councillors granted permission for Ecotricity to build a 90-metre wind monitoring mast in Nympsfield despite receiving more than 100 letters of objection from residents. Ecotricity already has a wind turbine at Lynch Knoll in Nympsfield.

Dale Vince, managing director of Ecotricity, said he was "disappointed" with the decision.

"It was against the advice of officers and the reason given was visual impact, which just seems silly," he said.

"Especially when you consider that on the same day the committee approved our application for a bigger mast actually in the AONB - where the purpose was not for the future building of windmills yet they turn down our application for a smaller mast outside of the AONB - on visual impact grounds - on a site where we say we do want to build windmills.

"I think that's something the committee might struggle to explain at the inevitable appeal.

"The need to address the issues of climate change and energy security is a pressing one, we can't bury our heads in the sand and those people we elect locally to make proper planning decisions have a responsibility to us all - not just to NIMBY pressure groups.”

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