Site last updated on 05 August 2007
7:12 AM
The Turbine at Watton: Warrendale Farms Ltd to Appeal ERYC Decision to Refuse Planning Permission.
For Your Information!
On September 1st a proposal from Warrendale Farms to erect a single wind-turbine with blade tip height of nearly 67 meters, (or 220 feet), at Bridge House Carr Farm Watton, was refused planning permission by the ERYC. The hub height of the proposed turbine was 50 meters, or 164 feet, which is higher than any pylon in the area, (about 125 feet), and could be expected to dominate the surrounding landscape.
The grounds given by the ERYC for refusing the application were that (1) it would detrimentally impact on the amenities of the occupiers of Bridge House (which is not connected to the development) and because (2) the wind turbine, by virtue of its scale and siting would have a significant detrimental impact on the landscape character of the area.
As might be expected, the applicants are now appealing to the Planning Inspectorate based in Bristol in hope of overturning the ERYC decision.
My purpose in informing you of all this is two-fold. In the first place I think you need to know about it. But you should also be aware that whether or not you objected to the turbine proposal before it was considered by the ERYC on September 1st you can still make representations on the appeal by writing direct to: The Planning Inspectorate at: 3/18a Eagle Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6PN. You must quote the Planning Inspectorate Reference: APP/E2001/A/11/2161814/NWF. And you will have to enclose 3 copies of you letter and they will have to have been received by the Planning Inspectorate by Wednesday 16th November 2011.
For further information about the application itself, it is probably best to go online to:
www.eastriding.gov.uk/newpublicaccess and search using the ERYC planning ref: 11/02619/STPLF. This is very easy to do and you are quickly taken to a page entitled: Planning >> Planning Application Documents and by clicking on Documents/View Associated Documents most of anything you might want to know can be found.
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What Can I Do About It?
Everybody should take an interest I think, (and that includes you whether you live in Watton or Hutton Cranswick or Skerne or Beswick or anywhere else nearby), The turbine proposed for Watton by Warrendale Farms is a Big Turbine and, in my view, should be opposed for the adverse landscape impact it will inevitably have by its size alone, regardless of its solitariness.
To give their reasons in full, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council refused permission for this development because:
1). The wind turbine by virtue of its scale and siting would have a significant detrimental impact on the amenities of the occupiers of Bridge House Farm, which is not connected to the development and lies approximately 400m from where the turbine would be sited. This is contrary to the advice in saved policy EN25 Renewable Energy of the East Yorkshire Borough Wide Local Plan (June 1997 and PPS22: Renewable Energy, and its associated Companion Guide.
2). The wind turbine by virtue of its scale and siting would have a significant detrimental impact on the landscape character of the area. This is considered contrary to policy ENV10 Landscape of the Yorkshire and Humber Plan Regional Spatial Strategy to 2026, (2008), saved policy SP4 of Joint Structure Paln for Kingston Upon Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire (2005), saved policy EN2 Open country side of the East Yorkshire Borough Wide Local Plan (June 1997), PPS22: Renewable Energy and it associated Companion Guide, and the East Riding of Yorkshire Landscape Character Assessment (2005).
The number of objectors matters and even if you do nothing else but write a letter of objection quoting in full these two reasons given above, that will significant and helpful.
Of course, to compose your own letter of objection would be best by far, but this is not easy and is certainly time consuming. However, you will have the advantage of being able to go on line to www.eastriding.gov.uk/newpublicaccess and search using the ERYC planning ref: 11/02619/STPLF and by accessing the documentation relating to the planning application, which includes the objections to it received by the council, you should be able to pick up some ideas. The quality of the objection letters is high I think.
A downloadable proforma letter of objection would be useful but I cannot promise to be able to arrange this in time. If I can it will be appearing on this website in the next week.
Meanwhile, I do hope to be able to write something helpful, (and soon), on the website Carr Landscapes of the River Hull: www.riverhullcarrscapes.co.uk so please keep your eye on this over the next 10 days or so. But remember that deadline – Wednesday 16th November.
But why should you bother if you live in Hutton Cranswick or Skerne? Well, the word on the street, (so to speak), is that RES Ltd have recently been making enquiries with the East Riding Highways Dept. about access to the Scurf Dyke site, where they have in the past proposed to put ten 120 metre high turbines, (peruse this website for a reminder of what this means for Hutton and Skerne). Whether or not this is true, permission granted on appeal to Warrendale Farms to site their large turbine at Watton will certainly give encouragement to RES Ltd seeking permission for whatever they finally propose for the Rotsea/Scurf Dyke area.
The number of objectors matters.
Mission Statement
Wolds WindFarm Opposition has been formed to continually develop, prepare, present and implement strategies and tactics to oppose the current and any subsequent planned developments of a windfarm between the villages of Skerne, Hutton, Cranswick and Watton.
A YORKSHIRE WATER nature reserve can boast another feather in its cap after the sighting of a rare great white egret this week. *
Fewer than 100 of the birds have been recorded in the UK, all of them vagrants lost on their way to their normal summer breeding grounds in eastern and central Europe.
* The site at Top Hill Low is on land adjacent to the proposed Rotsea Wind Farm.
For more on this story click here
THE EGRET HAS LANDED !