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25 May 2008:
West Somersets only Wind Turbine blows down! Wind speeds of up to only 50mph have demolished this 30m high wind turbine at Huish Champflower before it could be commissioned!
15 May 2008:
YOUR ENERGY PULLS OUT! EDF, the French power company buy land alongside Hinkley Point power station. They have also bought the rights for the proposed Wind Farm from the developers Your Energy.
Watch this space for further developments!
Click here for Bridgwater Times article.
23 April 2008:
Anemometer Mast is removed from proposed West Hinkley site - why?
22 April 2008:
Another Your Energy application rejected by Government Planning inspector at Laughton, Lincs, after another 5 year battle!
28 March 2008:
Britain`s largest windfarm company has just announced that the price of building offshore wind-turbines has doubled in the last three years. The building costs of windfarms are now more than five times the cost of building nuclear power stations.
The government`s plan is to build 7000 wind turbines around the coast of Britain.
A comparison of costs shows that six nuclear power stations would produce more electricity than all of these wind turbines at one fifth of the cost.
It is seldom acknowledged that if we build wind turbines we must also build the same electrical output of other power stations. The other stations are needed to supply electricity for no wind or very high wind conditions, when wind turbines do not work.
In other words if we build wind turbines we must also build other power stations. If we build other power stations we do not need to build wind turbines. Wind turbines clearly incur a huge additional cost in addition to their high building cost.
The conclusion has to be that wind is the wrong choice of renewable energy. It is not predictable and therefore cannot replace other power stations.
There is a form of renewable energy that is predictable. Its use would enable a reduction in numbers of other power stations, and an attendant reduction in price of electricity. Tidal power is that energy and a steady flow of electricity could be produced from its use.
It is not necessary to wait for a barrage, as tidal power turbines exist and operate well. A trial tidal turbine has operated successfully off Countisbury Head for several years now, working for in and out flowing tides. Times of high tide are staggered around the coast of Britain enabling a substantial and reliable supply of electricity, unlike wind turbines. Nuclear and tidal power in combination would be an excellent way to fight global warming.
Wind turbines are being built because some people make a lot of money and others wish to display green credentials. They are not the right choice and if we build them now we will regret it in the future.
31 January 2008:
The Somerset County Gazette conducted an online poll about power generation. The results were:
83% Nuclear
10.5% Tidal
6.3% Wind
0.2% Oil
0.0% Gas
17 January 2008:
Platina Financial (financial backers of Your Energy) announced that it has sold its 25% holding in the French wind farm developer SFE. (SFE is the French company that forms half of "Mistral Invests" wind farm interests, "Your Energy" being the other half.)
15 January 2008:
Brent Knoll Wind Farm Decision. HM Government Inspector rules against application by Ecotricity.
15 October 2007:
The Advertising Standards Agency rules against BWEA's (British Wind Energy Association) figures on CO2 savings.
The Advertising Standards Agency has described a claim made by Your Energy Ltd as misleading: In calculating the amount of carbon dioxide displaced by the proposed wind farm "Your Energy Ltd" uses an emissions factor of 860g CO2/kwh. This figure assumes that electricity produced by their turbines will exclusively replace that generated by a coal-fired power station with a typical emissions factor of 860g CO2/kwh. In reality wind power replaces power generated from a mixture of sources which, on average, produce 430g CO2/kwh. The Carbon Trust, the former DTI and DEFRA all recommend this figure to calculate the likely displacement of CO2 by wind power. The present claimed saving would be reduced from 41,200 tonnes to 20,600 tonnes each year. Back in 2004 Your Energy were claiming that their original 12-turbine plan would save up to three and a half times that amount at 74,500 tonnes of CO2 per annum.
Your Energy's company "West Hinkley Wind Farm Ltd" must pay for appeal costs.
Your Energys press release states that the grid connection is definitely to be made at Bow Hayes Cross, Williton. This will involve 17km of cabling, either on poles or underground.
Sedgemoor District Council objects. December 2006: British Energy, British Nuclear Fuels, and the Health & Safety Executive object on the grounds that the wind farm could compromise the safe operation of the nuclear power station.
RSPB object.
Secretary of State refuses Your Energy's request for adjournment of Appeal.
Your Energy submit a revised planning application for 9 turbines to run parallel with the appeal for 12 on the same site. Pre-Appeal Meeting at WSDC offices Willtion. Your Energy request that the Appeal be adjourned until WSDC has considered the revised application for 9 turbines. The Appeals Inspector ruled that this decision could only be made by the Secretary of State on referal.
It has been decided that the planning inquiry will be held on January 9th 2007, to decide whether or not the wind farm will go ahead. The venue has not yet been decided upon.
The 2006 WHAG AGM was held at the Victory Hall, Stogursey. The committee were re-elected and the Constitution and Terms of Reference, as amended, were adopted (See Instrument of WHAG)
Whinash Wind Farm, Cumbria turned down on appeal. Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister stated "Tackling global warming is critical but we must also nurture the immediate environment and wildlife. This is at the crux of the debate over wind energy."
DEFRA has chosen the West Somerset Coastline as part of a pilot scheme aimed at improving public enjoyment and access to coastal areas.
WHAG accepted by the Planning Inspectorate as Official Rule 6 (6) Objectors. Appeal called in for determination by the O.D.P.M. The inquiry will still be held but the inspector will only submit his recommendations to the Secretary of State for his decision.
Big chunk of turbine blade breaks off in Cornwall. Click here for the full story.
WSDC inform all objectors about the appeal to be decided by an inquiry. Click here for "how to help us"
West Hinkley Wind Farm Ltd (Your Energy) lodge an appeal against WSDC planning decision.
West Somerset District Council REJECT the planning application. Please click here for the press release.
WSDC Planning Officers recommend refusal of Your Energy's application for Wind Farm at West Hinkley. Common sense and good judgement prevailed!
Fairfield House in Somerset is the ancestral pile of the Acland-Hood family. Its current occupant, Lady Elizabeth Gass, is the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Somerset. The property is a grade 2 listed building. Lady Gass is hoping to gain planning permission to erect twelve 380-ft tall wind turbines on the Somerset Coast about 2 miles away from her home but within half a mile of dozens of properties in the hamlets of Knighton, Burton, Shurton and Wick. (Annual rent per turbine averages £7000) Between June 1995 and June 2001 Lady Gass acted as a Commissioner for English Heritage. During this time English Heritage awarded grants towards the upkeep of Fairfield House of £69,902 in 1997 followed by a further grant of £65,000 in 1998. Lady Gass has also been a Commissioner for the Inland Revenue and Fairfield House is regarded as a "heritage asset" for tax purposes. English Heritage, having been asked for its views by West Somerset District Council, has not objected to the proposal but recommend that the applicant be required to "implement mitigating landscaping measures in Fairfield park to reduce the long-term visual impact". Presumably people living at a closer distance and whose taxes have provided the grants will just have to put up with the despoliation of the outlook from their properties. Local residents are almost unanimously opposed to the wind farm but many occupy farms and cottages owned by Lady Gass and are afraid to openly voice their dissent. Of the two District Councillors that represent the area, one is a tenant of Lady Gass and the other is unable to take her place at the planning meeting for fear of action by the Standards Board.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee find that lavish subsidies paid to Wind Farm companies are too high and should be diverted to encourage other forms of renewable energy.
West Hinkley Wind Farm Ltd submit an Addendum and Corrigendum to their original planning application. Please send letters of objection to Chief Planning Office, Council Offices, 20 Fore Street, Williton, TA4 4QA. To download a standard letter of objection please go to this page.
On 17th June, 2005 the Appeal lodged by Your Energy Ltd. on 27th April, against the refusal by North Dorset District Council in respect of their application to build nine wind turbines on land at Winterborne Zelston, was dismissed. because "Your Energy Ltd." failed to comply with statutory requirements.
Your Energy retract in their press release their previous claims that the West Hinkley Wind Farm would supply 20,000 homes. Their revised claim is for "about" 13,000 homes. June 2005: Your Energy Ltd (who were recently fined for overdue accounts) again late in submitting accounts for West Hinkley Wind Farm Ltd. Companies House state that "we are pursuing the company and its directors in order to obtain the overdue documents."
Your Energy have a planning application rejected by South Cambridgeshire District Council. February 2005: New study from Germany condemns wind energy as "an expensive and inefficient way of generating sustainable energy". Click here for full article. February 2005: Companies House to take action to remove Your Energy from their register after Your Energy's repeated failure to produce the required documentation.
Western Morning News publishes double page spread about the West Hinkley proposal after reporter Neil Young, spends two days in the area, after approaching the action group for information.
Information received that Charles Sandham, Diretcor of Your Energy, has left the company.
WSDC Planning Meeting to debate application now postponed to New Year. Your Energy requires to submit information omitted from their Environmental Impact Survey.
West Somerset District Councillors make site visit. Many local people turned out to show their feelings about the proposal in the surrounding villages. The chairman of the planning committee addressed the protestors at the gates of Hinkley Point Power Station. Click here for more information.
New research from University of Groningen, Holland, states that methods used by wind turbine developes in the UK and elsewhere to predict noise were seriously flawed.
Sedgemoor District council vote against the proposal.
Stogursey, Kilve, Holford, Combwich, Stockland Bristol, Cannington, Burnham and Highbridge object to the proposal.
Public meeting chaired by Alan Searle, Chairman of Parish Council, held in Stogursey Victory Hall. Local residents were given the opportunity to state their views to the parish council. An overwhelming majority were against the wind farm.
WHAG welcomes Alun Nunn as President and Neil Parish MEP as Vice President. 9
The JAC held a meeting to discuss the proposed wind farm. Please click here for more information.
Your Energy due to return roadshow to Stogursey 3 April 2004: We have added a standard letter of objection that you may use if you wish. Please click here to download it (please note you will need Microsoft Word)
Three members of the WHAG committee attend a Joint Advisory Committee meeting for the Quantock Hills. Please click here for more information.
Your Energy are expected to submit their planning application to WSDC in May.
Your Energy's Senior Development Manager, Herbert Lindlahr, fails to keep appointmnet with local resident. No explanation or apology forthcoming.
Your Energy fail to turn up to local Parish Council meeting. No explanation or apology forthcoming.
© West Hinkley Action Group 2008