Broadview

< Back to all project news 03 Dec 2010 - Starbold Broadview to appeal Council's refusal of meteorological mast

Broadview has appealed to The Planning Inspectorate against the recent decision by Stratford-on-Avon District Council to refuse planning permission for a temporary 60 metre high wind measurement mast, on land between the villages of Knightcote and Bishops Itchington.  The mast, which comprises a steel tubular pole measuring 30 centimetres in diameter and 60 metres in height, would be used to measure wind speed and wind direction for a period of two years. 

The rejected proposal is a revised scheme designed to take account of the findings of a Government Inspector who dismissed a similar proposal at the site earlier this year. The Inspector concluded that whilst the previous application would give rise to some small localised landscape impacts, the benefits relating to the measurement of the site’s wind resource would sufficiently outweigh the harm.  However, the Inspector went on to find that bird deflectors would be required on the mast’s guy wires and, as they were not proposed, he could not factor these into his final conclusions on the proposal.  After careful consideration of these findings, Broadview submitted a revised planning application which sought to address the Inspector’s conclusions and included the provision of the required deflectors.  The amendments were recognised by the Council’s planning officer who recommended that the application be approved.  Nevertheless, the Council’s planning committee refused planning permission against the officer’s advice.

The appeal which has been submitted to The Planning Inspectorate argues that, whilst the inclusion of the bird deflectors will alter the look of the mast from the previous application, the benefit recognised by the Government Inspector of measuring the wind resource remains the same and this should prevail over the small localised landscape impacts.

Olly Buck, the Project Manager for Broadview Energy, commented: “We were surprised and disappointed that the Council’s planning committee chose to reject the mast for a second time because we had worked hard to amend the proposal in light of the Inspector’s findings.  The revised application was the subject of a thorough process of assessment by the Council’s consultees, including landscape and ecological experts, all of whom deemed the mast acceptable.  This was acknowledged by the planning officer who produced a thorough report recommending that the committee approve the application.  As the recommendations were ignored, we are left with no choice but to appeal the decision and we now look to The Planning Inspectorate to approve our proposals.”

Notes to editors:

• Broadview Energy Limited www.broadviewenergy.com develops wind energy projects in the United Kingdom that generate clean, sustainable energy. Broadview takes projects from site identification, through the planning process, to construction and then to operation. The company’s first wind farm (near Aberdeen) entered operation in January 2010. Broadview has a number of other projects at various stages of the development process throughout the United Kingdom.
• More information on the Starbold wind farm can be obtained via the dedicated project web pages: www.starboldwindfarm.com

For media enquiries, please contact:
Paul Taylor at Taylor Keogh Communications (paul@taylorkeogh.com / 020 3170 8466) or
Lisa Ross at Broadview Energy Limited (lross@broadviewenergy.com / 020 8487 9150).