Living with a Wind Farm
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007Do you live near an operational wind farm? If so, why not tells us about it at actnow@yes2beningtonwindfarm.com ? Mick Lee from Norfolk did and here’s what he had to say.
As ex-residents of Aston with a son and grandson living in Benington, we are following this story with interest. We now own a pub in the village of North Pickenham just outside Swaffham. As well as the much publicised eco-centre turbines in Swaffham, we have an 8 turbine farm on the edge of our village which has been running for just over a year.These are 120m high turbines that turn to a max of 14 m/sec and feather in higher winds. As the village pub landlord, we have had visits from several groups concerned about turbines going up in their area and particularly concerned about the noise, health issues etc.
These points may help your debate:
Noise is often cited - we hear none at all. Certainly there is no evidence of health problems, stress, lack of sleep, etc due to the turbines. Wildlife also seems unaffected. We have no increased traffic from sightseers on our country lanes nor, to my knowledge, has a single accident occurred due to distraction. There are many farms running already in East Anglia and I have heard of no such problems from any of them.
The worry of the effect on house prices tends to fuel a major part of the opposition but has been non-existent here. Hertfordshire is a more expensive area to live but I believe that house price will remian unaffected because people either love them or hate them on visual grounds. Sell to someone who likes them!!
Benefits - our village primary school is to be given a mini turbine which will provide most of their power, thus reducing a major bill with the spin off of a teaching resource.
Grants are available to the community from the energy company and are open to any organisation within 3km of the windfarm on a matched funding basis, i.e. community project costing £10000, we raise £5000, they give us £5000. £15k is available each year for 5 years. Such a deal is wll worth negotiating if it IS going to happen.
My points will not suit all points of view and you may well dismiss them as one person’s opinion. However, I would far rather see a wind turbine than an electricity pylon at the bottom of my garden.
Mick Lee
Landlord
Blue Lion
North Pickenham
Norfolk
PE37 8LF