Copyright 2003 
Lincolnshire Echo
October 21, 2003, p.2
Villagers in rage against machines

Plans for the £20 million wind farm are now open to public scrutiny and campaign groups are preparing their case against it. A meeting has been arranged by the Laughton Action Group Against Wind Turbines at Laughton School on Thursday, October 30.

And the Scotton and Northorpe action group will start planning its own opposition strategy this week. 

The group has said it will approach West Lindsey District Council and call for a public inquiry into the plan.

The wind farm plan has been put forward by power firm Your Energy.

It wants to install 100m-high turbines on land at Mount Pleasant Farm between Laughton and Northorpe.

They would be in place for 25 years, generating 27.5 megawatts - the equivalent power used by 51 per cent of West Lindsey's homes.

Malcolm Hamilton, of the Scotton and Northorpe group, said the technology would also generate noise and nausea.

He said the group wanted a public inquiry to investigate the potential effects on the immediate area and for many miles around.

He said he had seen a wind farm in Ireland similar to the one being proposed and had measured sound levels coming from the turbines.

"The noise is very disturbing - even in daytime it seems like aircraft passing overhead, all the time," he said.

"I measured the sound level at more than 60 decibels, 1km away. That was upwind. Downwind, as with this, would be worse.

"Low frequency sound which is sub-aural was more than 70dB - which is supposed to cause fatigue, sickness and anxiety.

"We are definitely calling for a public inquiry. We are worried that planners haven't visited a site with 10 of these on and measured the sound." Mr Hamilton said residents were also concerned that the turbines would be too inefficient to justify their location in open countryside.

"Wind turbines need an area where there is a constant wind source, like offshore," he said.

"You need to put them where you're not disturbing whole communities, again, like offshore." Allan Hilton, chairman of the Laughton group, said installation of the turbines would be "like industrialising the countryside".

He said that his group would join the call for a public inquiry.

"We are proposing a dignified campaign of letter writing, petitioning and joint meetings," he said.

"We're all coming from a united front - representing 94 per cent of Laughton village in objecting.

"When the proposal was first raised in May we did a survey and 94 per cent of the 200 residents said they were against and only two were for it. What we need now is for all of those people to write their objections down and get them in to the council within the next three weeks." He said response from Scotton and Blyton had been "disappointing".

"It's as if they don't think it will affect them, but it most definitely will. The noise from these things can travel three miles," said Mr Hilton.

West Lindsey's planning department has 16 weeks in which to make a decision on the scheme.

But head of planning George Martin said that because it was the first application of its kind, it might take longer to deal with. "We are certainly anticipating some response to this and we are getting clued up on the relevant issues," he said.