Tory council leads battle against new wind–farm developments

Published on 05/06/2012 02:32

A CONSERVATIVE-LED council is preparing to fight new wind farm developments.

Amid a growing backlash against onshore wind turbines among countryside campaigners, Lincolnshire County Council is to vote this week on new guidance introducing a presumption against allowing any more to be built.

The authority’s Tory leader Martin Hill said he did not want the county to be covered by a “forest of the things”.

“We have got them in Lincolnshire, we are not saying we are not going to have any more, but we feel we have already got 75 big turbines – we are talking about big things, above 130 metres high, the latest ones the sort of size of the London Eye,” he said.

“We have already got 75, there are several hundred in the pipeline, and really, as representing Lincolnshire, I don’t think we want the whole county to be covered by a forest of the things.”

The council is to issue a position statement saying that new wind farms should not be built within six miles of villages comprising more than ten homes.

The county authority does not have control of planning issues, which is handled by the district councils. But Mr Hill said he expected the district councils and other authorities – including the government – to “take into account” the view of the county councillors.

More than 100 Tory MPs wrote to Mr Cameron earlier this year calling for cuts in the £400 million subsidies.

However, a poll published yesterday suggested that more than two thirds of the public support wind farms.