The developer, Tegni Cymru Cyf, has lodged an eleventh-hour Appeal (reference APP/L0635/A/07/2047477) and the matter is going to a Planning Inquiry, so our campaign to protect the North Cheshire Green Belt from this inappropriate industrial-scale development must continue.

The Northwich Guardian again featured the Parish Council's concerns about the proposed wind turbines, interviewing Steve Pardoe from Acton Bridge with an illustrated article by James Wilson on p13. Although the turbines would be across the River Weaver in Aston, their characteristic thudding sound when the blades pass the main shaft would be audible for miles downwind. This is analogous to the heavy pulsing sound of a Chinook helicopter's rotor blades as they cross over the fuselage.

This is the front page banner headline in the Chester Chronicle of 8. December 2006, with a picture of Frodsham's Borough Councillor Mrs Lynn Riley, who has been an outspoken opponent of the wind farm but was not allowed to vote at the full Council Meeting on 30. November.

Cllr Riley was quoted as saying: "In the end the developers didn't put a strong enough case forward. There were far more cons against pro's, it didn't have any benefits for anyone locally".

Mike Cooksley, chairman of Weaver Valley Regional Park Management Board, added: "Not only is this a victory for democracy but a victory for common sense".

There was also a quote from Acton Bridge Parish Cllr Steve Pardoe, as reported below in the Northwich papers.

A council spokeswoman said: "The council will prepare a formal decision notice, and it will be up to the developer if it wishes to appeal. In that event, the case will go to a public inquiry".

The papers quoted a "Delighted vice-chairman of Acton Bridge Parish Council Steve Pardoe [who] said: 'Most who spoke said the applicant had simply failed to demonstrate the very special circumstances to justify the development which was, by definition, inappropriate in the green belt. Many other comments were made about the exceptional sensitivity of the location and the fact that the CO2 saving from these four turbines would be insufficient to make a meaningful contribution to climate change compared to the impact on the local environment.'"

More articles appeared following the Planning Committee Meeting of 3. October, finishing too late for press deadlines that week. Mike Hall MP expressed his delight that the Planning Committee had turned the application down, since the intrusion into the countryside couldn't be justified.

There was an additional article in the Northwich Chronicle of 4. October 2006, ("Turbine protest is all set to continue", p5; only the top of the article is shown).

It quoted Mike Hall MP, who remains opposed to the wind farm, saying,"There are very strong grounds for rejecting this application. I'm not at all convinced there is a need for these four turbines. I understand the amount of energy they would produce is limited".

What's more, Mike Hall raised the topic in an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons on 24. March 2005, as follows [Hansard]:"Sadly, our fears have come true because Tegni Cymru, the Welsh private electricity company installing the anemometer, has put forward proposals to place four 125-m-high wind turbines on Aston Grange farm. I am determined that we must fight the application when it comes forward, because it would despoil the most beautiful part of my constituency, be a blot on the landscape and represent the loss of a superb visual amenity. Having fought the proposals by Network Rail and the National Grid Company to put a substation and trackside feeder station on the green belt in Weaverham and Acton Bridge in my constituency, I will do all that I can to ensure that that planning application goes no further forward."