Turbine crusader wins first skirmish
A ONE-man crusade to stop a wind farm being installed in St Mawgan is a step closer to success.
William Corbett, a member of St Mawgan Parish Council, has won the right to a full judicial review of the planning permission granted for the 100m-tall, five-turbine development in the parish.
Despite local objections, Cornwall Council granted permission for the development on land at Lower Denzell Farm, St Mawgan, in April last year.
But William Corbett launched an application to challenge the decision in the High Court – and on Wednesday won the first stage of his battle.
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Judge Nicholas Padfield, QC, said Mr Corbett's legal team had arguable grounds for saying the council's decision was flawed, and granted permission for the challenge to go ahead. Mr Corbett told the Cornish Guardian that he was "very pleased" with the result.
"We got everything we wanted," he said.
"We were granted the allow of appeal on all six grounds we put forward – we only have to win one of them.
"I am doing this because I just get so irritated with the officers misleading the committee. The advice they were given in the officer's report was manifestly wrong. They totally misrepresented the advice they had."
In a boost for the campaign, the judge also made an order restricting the amount of costs Mr Corbett could be liable for, if he loses, to £5,000.
A date for the review, which was challenged by both the council and developers REG Windpower, has yet to be set.
Cornwall Council will be considering the grounds on which the claim for a judicial review has been made and intend to robustly defend the case.
2 Comments
by max5500
Tuesday, March 12 2013, 2:15PM
“Yeah well done Mr Corbett for protecting Ivors fair county. He's happy as long as he gets cheap dirty energy from his honorable supplier (who are squeezing the consumers paying for 'massive subsidies sucked from the pockets of our poorest citizens, yet somehow, at the same time making record profits...). Oh and the cheap dirty energy has to come from hundreds of miles away from the fair county and it doesn't matter that 60% of the produced energy is lost on its way to Cornwall. The standard attitude of a NIMBY.”
by IvorWard
Thursday, March 07 2013, 8:21PM
“Well done Mr Corbett. You stand as a beacon of common sense in the overall capitulation by Cornwall Council to the scammers and carpetbaggers that are trying to overrun our fair County with Industrial wind turbine developments.
We all know it is about the Green dollars not the green energy. Without the massive subsidies sucked from the pockets of our poorest citizens these wind weasels would pack up and go home to look for the next quick buck to be put their way by our corrupt and gullible government.”