Broadview

< Back to all news articles 07 Feb 2012 - Pilrow Broadview Energy to hold further public exhibitions about proposed Pilrow wind farm

Broadview Energy, the developer behind the proposed Pilrow wind farm located to the south of Rooksbridge village, will be hosting a series of public exhibitions during February.  The exhibitions will give members of the local community an opportunity to meet the independent expert consultants who have been assessing the suitability of the site, find out about the numerous detailed surveys that have been undertaken, and see images of what the proposed project could look like if constructed.

Residents will have the following opportunities to meet the Broadview team:
• Monday 20th February at Mark Village Hall, Vole Road, Mark, from 9.30am to 1.30pm
• Monday 20th February at East Brent Village Hall, Brent Road, from 4.00pm to 8.00pm

The community exhibitions will show residents the turbine locations and photographic representations of what the site will look like.  The independent consultants, which will include the landscape architect and noise consultant who have both been involved in the project design process and assessment of potential impacts, will also be available to talk through the proposals. 

Tom Cosgrove, Project Manager at Broadview Energy, said: “We would urge as many people as possible to attend the exhibitions to find out more about our final proposals and what has been happening at the site over the past few months.  The exhibitions are the second set we have held and we believe that, along with our other consultation events, we are giving residents a tangible picture of what the proposal might mean for them”. 

The exhibitions are part of Broadview’s extensive and wide reaching community engagement programme which has been ongoing since June 2011 and recently included a trip for local residents to its four turbine Low Spinney wind farm near Gilmorton Village, within Harborough District, Leicestershire.

Seven local residents attended the trip and found it most informative, with a number commenting that the turbines did not appear to be as large or as noisy as they had expected.

Low Spinney is Broadview’s second operational site and consists of four, 125 metre tall wind turbines on agricultural land adjacent to the M1 motorway. The Low Spinney site is very similar to the proposed Pilrow wind farm which, if approved, will also have four turbines, 130 metres in height, on agricultural land adjacent to the M5. Those in attendance were driven to different locations around the wind farm so that they could experience the wind farm in operation from a range of distances.

Tom Cosgrove added: “The trip to Low Spinney was very successful and demonstrated our commitment to maintaining an open and constructive dialogue with residents. We hope that experiencing a similar wind farm operating in a similar environment has been informative for residents.”

The Pilrow wind farm is expected to generate enough electricity to meet the average annual demands of up to 5,300 households in the area and, in doing so, will make a valuable contribution towards increasing the UK’s energy security and reducing our growing reliance on fossil fuel imports from volatile regions of the world.

Final designs for the site were announced earlier in January and, following a detailed programme of site investigation and community consultation, the number of turbines has been reduced from the originally proposed six to four, and their height reduced from 140 to 130 metres.

For more details on the project and the forthcoming events please visit the dedicated project website: www.pilrowwindfarm.com. Details can also be found on the Support Pilrow Wind Farm Facebook page.

Notes to editors:

1. Broadview Energy Limited www.broadviewenergy.com develops wind energy projects in the United Kingdom that will generate clean, sustainable energy. Broadview takes projects from site identification, through the planning process, to construction and operation. The company’s first wind farm (near Aberdeen) entered into operation in January 2010. Broadview has a number of other projects at various stages of the development process throughout the United Kingdom.

2. More information on the Pilrow wind farm can be obtained via the dedicated project web pages: www.pilrowwindfarm.com 

For media enquiries, please contact:

Kierstan Lowe at Spirit Public Relations (klowe@spiritpublicrelations.co.uk / 0117 944 1415).