Campaigners fighting plans for a new wind farm near Burnham-On-Sea have this week welcomed the news that Sedgemoor District Council has appointed an independent noise expert to assess the risk of noise pollution from the proposed wind turbines.
Energy firm Broadview wants to construct four 130-metre tall wind turbines – each as tall as Brent Knoll – on land at Pilrow Farm, south of Rooksbridge.
NoPilrow spokesman David Maund told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “It is good that Sedgemoor is taking the issue of noise seriously, but unfortunately, the legislation regulating noise and wind farms is considered by many noise consultants to be not fit for purpose.”
He added: “In their planning application, Broadview states that operational noise levels from the wind farm will be within levels deemed, by national guidance, to be acceptable for wind energy schemes and would not have any significant effects upon residential amenity.”
“I imagine residents near the Fullabrook wind farm in North Devon were given similar reassurances by the developer. Recently, the local press in Devon reported that the wind farm exceeded the acceptable level of noise and breached the planning conditions.”
David explained: “Since Fullabrook wind farm would have met the standard dictated by the ETSU-97 legislation during the planning phase, it is surely obvious that this legislation is no longer sufficiently rigorous for the much larger turbines now being employed.”
Source: Burnham-On-Sea.com