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31-Aug-2010
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Local Issues
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Nick Wittering
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Towards the end of March, Thriplow Parish Council, along with the Parish Councils of Heydon, Chishill, Chrishall, Duxford, Fowlmere and Melbourn, received a Request for a Scoping Opinion from South Cambridgeshire District Council relating to a proposed Wind Farm at Heydon Grange. This is NOT a formal Planning Application. Until and unless the proposal reaches the Planning Application stage, the Parish Councils and the Councillors themselves are not allowed to take a view for or against this proposal. If they do, their views in the actual consultation on the application will be ignored as being prejudiced. We can and should however, bring this proposal to your attention.
Towards the end of March, Thriplow Parish Council, along with the Parish Councils of Heydon, Chishill, Chrishall, Duxford, Fowlmere and Melbourn, received a Request for a Scoping Opinion from South Cambridgeshire District Council relating to a proposed Wind Farm at Heydon Grange. This is NOT a formal Planning Application. Until and unless the proposal reaches the Planning Application stage, the Parish Councils and the Councillors themselves are not allowed to take a view for or against this proposal. If they do, their views in the actual consultation on the application will be ignored as being prejudiced. We can and should however, bring this proposal to your attention.
There have been two well attended public meetings so far (both of them with Thriplow Parish Councillors in attendance). At the first meeting in Heydon, we found out that the proposal is for up to 11 large turbines, to be sited on both sides of the road on the hillside immediately south of the Heydon Grange Golf Course. Up to 25MW will be generated by this windfarm. The blades proposed will be the largest of those currently installed in the UK. The meeting also received a presentation by an expert in fighting inappropriate windfarm developments and the general view of the meeting was against the proposal.
Following this first meeting, an Action Group was set up to fight this proposal and this group is currently organising itself. They held a second public meeting in Chishill, again with the consultant present. The action group mainly consists of people living in the Chrishall, Chishill and Heydon parishes, as obviously these people will be those most affected by the proposal. However, it is understood that anyone within 10km of a windfarm is generally affected by it, and that is why our council has been consulted.
The Action Group will need to generate awareness and raise some funds to prepare their arguments against the proposal. They are in the process of setting up a website [
link
] and they are already on Facebook - Group Name Stop Heydon Grange Wind Farm. We will be helping them to get their message across to you and to answer any questions you may have by helping them to organise a public meeting in Thriplow at the appropriate time. Watch this space and the notice boards for news of this meeting.
In the meantime, if you need any further information, please visit the appropriate SCDC website page by putting "Heydon windfarm" into Google and hitting the first SCDC link or ask any of your parish councillors for more information.
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