The battle by residents of Aston and Dutton, small hamlets near Frodsham Cheshire, to prevent four enormous wind turbines, each over 400 feet tall, being erected on Green Belt land near the River Weaver is continuing, despite the planning application being turned down by Vale Royal Borough Council.
The applicants, Tegni Cymru backed by German wind farm developers Germania Windpark, have now appealed against the Council's decision. The matter will be decided at a Public Inquiry, which is likely to be held in early Spring 2008.
The 'Stop Aston Windfarm' (SAW) group was set up two years ago when the planning application for this wind farm was first made. The purpose of the Group is to act as a focal point for residents and local Parish Meetings and Councils who are determined to protect the North Cheshire Green Belt and the Weaver Valley landscape.
The Group has reformed, and its key objective now is to ensure that the overwhelming arguments against this wind farm in this highly visible and sensitive location are properly and professionally presented to the Public Inquiry.
In order to make this happen, SAW has retained Geoffrey Sinclair, a well-respected environmentalist with a strong track-record of helping local communities fight Public Inquiries against wind farms in totally unsuitable locations, to represent Aston, Dutton, and the surrounding parishes.
The priorities for SAW over the next few months are:
- To raise sufficient money from residents, local companies and other concerned groups, to be able to fund Geoffrey Sinclair up to and including the Public Inquiry
- To make sure the thousands of people in the North Cheshire area who will be adversely affected by this proposed wind farm are aware that the threat has not gone away, and to mobilise them to help fight the wind farm by supporting SAW.
A spokesman for SAW said 'We really thought that this proposal had gone away, and that the developers had got the message, following the overwhelming turndown by Vale Royal Borough Council, that a wind farm in this location - Green Belt, part of the Weaver Valley Area of Special County Value for Landscape, surrounded by rural Cheshire villages and much used by local residents for walking, cycling, and horse riding, as well as a haven for wildlife - would be totally unacceptable. It is amazing that they are prepared to throw further money away by taking the decision to Appeal.
The residents of Aston, Dutton, and the surrounding parishes are as concerned about global warming and climate change as everyone else in the country - however, this appalling proposal, which is truly the wrong scheme in the wrong place, is not the answer'.