Villagers vote to go ahead with wind turbine 'taller than Truro Cathedral'
Campaigners squeezed a narrow victory in the first round of their fight to build a 76 metre (249ft) wind turbine in a Cornish village.
The Low Carbon Ladock co-operative and Green Trust CIC are the two groups behind the bid to build the community-owned turbine on farm land east of New Mills at Ladock, near Truro.
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They believe the 500-800kW structure will power around a third of the electricity used each year by homes and businesses in the parish.
At least £30,000 per year would also be generated for the local community according to the organisations.
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Before planning permission can be submitted to Cornwall Council the co-operative and Green Trust CIC, a community energy company based in Cornwall wanted to test public support.
Some 633 questionnaires were sent out to households in Ladock and neighbouring Grampound Road – 308 were returned to independent market research company, PFA Research.
Of those returnees, 56% were in favour of the turbine, 42% against and 2% declined to answer the question.
Overall, 27% of households responded with a yes, 20% with a no, while 52% failed to respond.
Chris Jones chairman of Low Carbon Ladock said he was pleased the required amount of support had been garnered.
He said: "The co-operative were quite clear that if we did not achieve a 55% yes vote then we would not even submit the planning application.
"It is great to have passed that benchmark, meaning that we can now move forward to the planning process, but we must remember that it is the planning system that will really determine whether the community turbine will go ahead.
"We would have liked more returns as we want the whole community to be engaged, however, what is encouraging is that one in two households in the area participated in the consultation.
"We know there are concerns from people who live near the proposed site, but we looked across the parish for a suitable site and are confident the one chosen is the best possible location to have a community turbine of significant scale."
Local resident Richard Conybeare, who lives at Ladock, said he was opposed to the turbine being erected in the village.
He said: "While I am all for renewable energy and back a lot of what Low Carbon Ladock co-operative do, I don't believe such a huge structure is suitable in our village.
"We're talking about building something that's two feet taller than Truro Cathedral."
Comments
by Fotografo
Friday, October 12 2012, 2:34PM
“Dear Commentators,
"Dear CathyRozel,
I am a documentary photographer living in Cornwall. I have been interested in the current affairs relating to the Installations of Wind Turbine around the County. I wanted to develop a photographic project around the theme and wanted to know if you would be kind enough to help me on this. I have followed some of your comments and it seems you re the ideal person to have a little chat about this situation. I want to explore some of the areas that may be affected and interview some of the residents involved in this whole scenario.
Please if you would like to participate let me know. You can visit my website http://tinyurl.com/9fyvljl and contact me from there.
Thankfully
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by Taxman100
Thursday, October 11 2012, 12:34PM
“Olly_Gark. You are correct. The Parish will be making their £30,000.00 at the expense of the general taxpayer. The greed and selfish behaviour they openly display is no different from those who deliberately sponge off the taxes paid by hard working people - overtly selfish and greedy! Additionally, their greed knows no bounds as they damage the environment, yet claim their Green credentials. They are no different from the Banker's who created the crisis in 2008 - greedy and immoral!
I sincerely hope Cornwall Council sees this application for what it truly is and refuses to support it.”
by 2ladybugs
Thursday, October 11 2012, 12:18PM
“None of the figures add up so how they got to 55% saying yes will remain a mystery I guess!!??
Villagers of Ladcock you've been made suckers of.”
by toffer99
Thursday, October 11 2012, 11:59AM
“So this will be as high as Truro Cathedral: http://tinyurl.com/9jmbndk”
by Truro_England
Thursday, October 11 2012, 10:21AM
“what is the cost to make and install these turbines inc man hours, fuel for all the vehicles, cut down the trees near by to put up power cables etc etc
But I will get shut down for asking these questions because i dont believe in this global stealth tax hoax with as brain washed so many.
500-800kW is just a thrid of all these houses in the village, and this is only gernerated if these turbines are running at full speed every day, and if all these tree huggers want electric cars then we would need a power station to run them.”
by bissoeboy
Wednesday, October 10 2012, 4:19PM
“Surely it is better to try to create our own energy, even if it's sometimes initially subsidized, than to keep importing energy into the county? In addition, they are subsidising these useless technologies to boost their advancement in an attempt to reduce excessive charges!”
by Olly_Gark
Wednesday, October 10 2012, 2:28PM
“"At least £30,000 per year would also be generated for the local community according to the organisations."
No. At least £30,000 a year will be looted from the tax payer and from excessive charges to *all* electricity users in order to subsidise this useless technology.”