A SCHOOL wind turbine that was set to teach children that energy "doesn’t come out of a plug socket" has been sat idle for four months due to a technical problem.

The turbine at Blue Coat Primary, in Wotton-under-Edge, has not been spinning since Easter because it was too noisy and nearby residents had complained to the council.

The school said it has since found out the noise was being made because internal settings were incorrect and the manufacturer of the product has been to fix it.

The turbine can only be switched back on once again once an environmental health officer gives it the green light again.

A parent who has been working on the school's environment project, Caroline Alliston, said: "Some objections and complaints were made about the noise of the turbine and when we went up to check we found it was indeed making more noise than we expected.

"We switched it off while we tried to work out what the problem was."

The manufacturer of the turbine visited the site and said that the inverter settings inside the turbine were incorrect.

The school is hoping the settings have been fixed and are now waiting for the environmental officer to visit the site on a windy day to check the noise.

"We hope that the turbine should be much quieter and we can get it started up again," said Caroline.

The planning application for the turbine attracted over 600 responses from various members of the public in November last year, 400 in support and 200 against.

Members of the district council’s development control committee were also divided about whether to grant planning permission with seven voting for and three against.

Cllr Fi MacMillan said at the time: "The turbine has the power to show children that energy does not come out of a plug socket and that it can be produced in a community using natural sources."

Members of the campaign group who opposed the turbine said they did not wish to comment until the results from the environmental officer were back.