Cont …….

 

Councillor Les Ford continued   “The Green Belt was established to prevent industrialisation of this area. The wind turbines are an industrial element quite contrary to our Green Belt policy. No mitigation is possible.

“Also the low frequency noise of the turbines will penetrate house walls and travel a great distance.”

Councillor Ford also raised the issue of protected species of birds and bats, claiming thousands could be killed by the turbines and argued that this was contrary to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This issue will now be raised with the Secretary of State.

The turbines have a maximum height of 80 metres to the hub and 125 metres to the tip, giving a rotor radius of approximately 45 metres. They would be three bladed and grey in colour.   They could be seen from Helsby Hill, the Northern Sandstone Ridge and the Frodsham Sandstone Fringe.

 

Councillor Malcolm Gaskill said: “In the past I have supported wind farms until I went to Anglesey and saw those monsters and I have hated wind farms ever since. They should be in the North Sea.”

Approximately 4,498 homes would be within 2km of any proposed turbines. The residential assessment has identified that 36 percent would experience changes in views. 

 

Councillor Stuart Parker added: “Having seen the big wheel outside the HQ building here in Chester that is 50 metres high, the wind turbines would be up to 120 metres. This really brings it home to you.”

The committee considered that the wider benefits of the renewable energy development in this case were outweighed by considerations including the North Cheshire Green Belt, the Mersey Estuary Zone, designate sites of international and national nature conservation importance and the development would adversely affect the setting of Helsby Hill, a Scheduled Ancient Monument

 

Background:

TURBINES standing more than 400ft tall could soon tower over hundreds of hectares of marshland in Cheshire.   The county’s first wind farm would have 21 turbines on the Frodsham and Ince Marshes, and become one of the largest onshore wind power sites in the UK.   The giant wind turbines could provide energy for up to 30,000 homes, more than one-fifth of the homes in west Cheshire and Chester, and achieve more than one-quarter of the county’s 2020 renewable energy target.

 

Extensive studies have been undertaken on a stretch of land that runs between the Manchester Ship Canal and the M56, and indicate that that it is a good location for a wind farm of 20 turbines.

Each of the 125m turbines would generate 3MW of electricity, and, together provide a total of 60MW installed capacity. Frodsham windfarm would help to deliver more than one-quarter of the 2020 renewable energy target for Cheshire.

On 25 February 2010, Peel Energy submitted a planning application for the Frodsham wind farm to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the government body responsible for handling and determining the application.   Over 550 people visited the public exhibitions in November 2009 to find out about our initial proposal.

CHESHIRE WEST Council objects to wind farm plan for Frodsham

Decision triggers public inquiry