Are Landscapes and Park-like Areas Important?

From The Star

Wind turbines plan
Published Date: 16 December 2009
RESIDENTS who campaigned for 18 months to stop a controversial wind farm being built between Stocksbridge and Penistone are celebrating after councillors threw out the scheme.
Members of Barnsley Council's planning board decided 12 votes to eight to refuse planning permission for five 125-metre wind turbines at Sheephouse Heights, overlooking the Langsett Valley.

Environmental activists staging a demonstration outside arnsley Town Hall said the turbines, which developers say could provide electricity for 9,000 homes, are needed as a green alternative to burning carbon.

They were supported by more than 1,000 people who wrote to the council in favour of the scheme, many who argued an estimated 25,000-tonne reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is more important than the visual impact.

The green activists were supported by Friends of the Earth, Sheffield Campaign Against Climate Change, Sheffield Green Party Coun Jillian Creasy and the GMB union.

But councillors decided in favour of the 1,350 residents who said the scheme would be a blot on the landscape and would have a negative effect on the nearby Peak District National Park.

After hearing from developers Evelop UK, and from the Protect Sheephouse Heights Group, board members voted to abide by planning officers' recommendation that Sheephouse is the wrong site for the scheme.

Speaking afterwards Alan Hey, of the Protect Sheephouse Heights Group, said: "We are very pleased, and think the council made the right decision. This has been a controversial project from day one.

"This is the right decision for the community, and we think the true friends of Penistone and Stocksbridge won the day. The nucleus of our group is made up of people who live very close to the site, some of them just 300m away, and this development would have severely damaged
their amenity."

Stocksbridge MP Angela Smith said: "Given the strengths of the grounds for refusal I hope that the developers will desist from going to appeal or revising the application and hope they now drop the plan."

Stephen Brooks, of Sheffield-based Evelop UK, said Sheephouse would be the ideal location for a wind farm.

He said: "We are very disappointed that the scheme was turned down. We thought that it was a very well thought-out proposal with a number of
environmental, financial and social benefits for the area.

"We are now going to wait until we get the formal reasons for refusal from Barnsley Council, and decide where we are going to go from there."
Olly Buck, project manager for Evelop UK, said: "We are obviously disappointed with the decision.

"We think it is a well thought-out project that would have generated enough electricity for more than 9,000 homes. It could have also played its part in tackling climate change and helping towards a home-grown energy supply.

"We now need to study the planning committee's decision in detail and decide our next steps."

Rachel Gibbons, from Penistone Friends of the Earth, said: "The UK has committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. A very important part of this is a renewed push for clean, green renewable energy."