Wind turbine plan blown out

CHEERING and clapping rang out after plans for a wind turbine one-and-a-half times the size of Nelson’s Column were blown away by council planners.

Protesters against the controversial Benington scheme crowded into the stuffy East Herts Council chamber to wave placards at a development control committee meeting last Wednesday.

The meeting attracted so many members of the public that a video link had to be set up to beam proceedings into an overflow room.

In total, the committee was told there were objections to the 283.8ft (86.5m) turbine from more than 600 residents, six parish councils, council leader Cllr Tony Jackson (Con, Datchworth and Aston) and North East Herts Tory MP Oliver Heald.

Councillors voted seven to five against the turbine off High Elms Lane after officers, who had recommended the scheme for approval, conceded they may be able to defend an appeal on the impact it would have on the character of the landscape.

Deputy council leader and committee member Cllr Malcolm Alexander (Con, Ware Trinity) said: “We don’t have to accept them [wind turbines] in areas of natural beauty. Six parish councils around this area are objecting, not for NIMBY [Not in My Back Yard] reasons but for real reasons. I would suggest there is very little benefit and an awful lot of harm.”

Cllr David Andrews (Con, Thundridge and Standon) added: “We’re facing having the Beane Valley landscape scarred for a generation or more. This is not a community project – this is basically for profit.”

And Cllr Jeanette Taylor said the turbine was a “wholly inappropriate development” that would mean “irreparable damage will be done to this lovely area of East Herts”.

Earlier, nervous applicant Andrew Bott tried to reassure councillors: “We’re not going to get turbines all over the place. There really is no reason not to build this wind turbine.”

dan.peters@hertsessexnews.co.uk