Hostility to windfarm grows

Adam Hewitt • Published 18 Feb 2010 18:00 0 Comments

See also:

EARLEY councillors have joined campaigners to step up the fight against a windfarm planned south of the M4.

They were among 140 people at a public meeting on Tuesday night organised by Householders Against Rushy Mead (Harm).

Cllr David Chopping said: "It's a travesty - the turbines are just too big. It's going to encourage opposition to windfarms from people who are otherwise sensible. It's going to alienate people from the whole environmental agenda because of their opposition to this scheme."

The 80m-high turbines and their 50m blades at the Rushy Mead site, south of the M4 on Reading University land, will be easily visible to many in Lower Earley. Town councillor Tim Chambers said they would be an "eyesore".

But Tuesday's full-to-capacity meeting at the British Legion building in Arborfield focused on noise issues, since campaigners say their sleep and health could be affected. This is denied by windfarm developers Partnership for Renewables (PfR).

Committee member Jan Heard helped organise the meeting and said: "There were an awful lot of people concerned about this and we have now got a good core of people campaigning against it.

"The Japanese Government has just commissioned a four-year study on the health effects of living near turbines, which will be the first systematic study of the problem."

Sleep scientist Christoper Hanning spoke at the meeting, saying people needed to know their sleep could be affected by the noise.

PfR says it is not in its interests to press ahead with a scheme that causes a noise nuisance and raises planning issues and that it is important that all turbines are well-sited. It carries out site-specific noise assessments and background noise checks at nearby homes to ensure the noise levels will be within guidelines.

PfR communications chief Tom Brinicombe spoke at a meeting organised by Earley Environmental Group on Monday night at Maiden Place Community Centre in Kilnsea Drive, where the majority of the audience backed the plans. But Mr Brinicombe admitted that the environmental campaigners were more likely than the general population to favour windfarms.

Tony Duffin, from PfR, said: "We take our design and assessment work very seriously and are committed to only developing turbines at the Rushy Mead site if studies show that they are appropriate for the location. We have not completed this work yet but we will not pursue the project if it's shown to be inappropriate.

"Site specific noise studies are being carried out as part of our environmental and technical investigations. This work incorporates carrying out noise assessments at a selection of properties near to the site and enables us to ensure that any future wind energy project at Rushy Mead will not result in noise problems."

PfR holds regular drop-in sessions for people wanting to know more about the plans at Earley's CResCent Centre in Warbler Drive. The next is on Thursday, March 25, from 11am-7pm.

For more on the plans see www.pfr.co.uk/rushymead or for more on Harm's campaign email wfarborfield@live.com or call 07593 955377.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.

Follow @rdgchronicle