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Windfarm test gets approval

28/ 2/2006

THE company behind plans for a windfarm in Littleborough has denied that it is any nearer to its goal following approval of a test mast.

Coronation Power received the go-ahead to install a 60-metre mast for 18 months at Crook Hill at the Pennines Township planning sub-committee meeting on Thursday night.

The aluminium tower, on the moors between Watergrove Reservoir and the hills above Littleborough, will test the strength and direction of wind in the area.

Results from the mast, with instruments positioned at different heights to measure the wind speeds, will help the London-based company to decide if a windfarm there is viable.

Planning officers recommended that it should be approved because it is 'a temporary feature only justified by need for collection of wind speed information.'

Paul Taylor, Coronation Power's community relations manager, said after the meeting: "The approval of the mast is one step, but it is not everything.

"It doesn't set a precedent that the council would accept the windfarm."

Planning permission was approved with attached conditions that the mast should be removed from the site on or before 23 August next year.

And work should not start until a statement, indicating measures to avoid damage from construction vehicles, is approved by the council.

Wardle Society objected that the test mast 'would introduce an industrial structure into the green belt'.

They stated in a letter to the council: "As this is a preliminary project, the intention of which is to assess whether the area can sustain yet-to-be proposed wind turbines, to which we would object most strongly, we fail to see a satisfactory reason to allow even this."

Society member Ted Bolton said they are 'very disappointed' that the mast had been approved.

The group will discuss the matter at its next meeting tomorrow night.

Councillor Ashley Dearnley said after the meeting: "This is just a test mast and I have to accept planning rules. It does not pave the way for the approval of the windfarm.

"We don't want any damage caused to the area and we don't want any massive, ugly wind turbines affecting the local view."

Mr Taylor said a comprehensive environmental impact assessment of the land, looking at a range of issues such as bird movements, the visual impact and noise, will also be undertaken before Coronation Power submits an application for a windfarm.

He said they would 'make good' any damage caused to the moorland during the installation of the mast.

But he expects there will be 'limited physical impact'.

He said they are looking at Crook Hill as a site for 'no more than five turbines'.'

Wardle Society members, who are planning their objections to the latest scheme, battled against previous plans for a windfarm of 13 turbines in the same area in 1998. That application was rejected.