Turbine critics to meet MP

Friday 24th October 2008, 11:02AM BST.

Owen Paterson MPCampaigners fighting a proposed windfarm near Market Drayton were today due to meet their MP and expert advisors to decide on how to fight plans.

The Vortex – Veto On Rural Turbine Expansion – group called the meeting after energy giant Nuon appealed against a decision to refuse permission for seven giant turbines at Lower Farm, Bearstone.

Members of North Shropshire District Council’s development control committee threw out plans for the 110-metre turbines last month in front of about 300 objectors. 

Residents opposed to the windfarm said it would ruin the landscape and cause problems for pilots from RAF Shawbury, as well as causing flickering from the sun and affecting nearby residents’ health. 

Terry May, of Vortex, is holding the meeting at her Market Drayton home and north Shropshire MP Owen Paterson is due to attend. 

Mrs May said: “We have the full support of our MPs and we have our advisors too.”

Graham Davey, project manager for Nuon, said it was confident the site was suitable for a windfarm.

Mrs May said the case against the site was “never put forward properly” because campaigners say they had only three minutes to state it and no right of reply.

But they are hoping that they will have more of an opportunity in the future to make their views known.


  1. 1
    Tena Roberts

    We live in a democracy. So the fact that over 1,000 objection letters from LOCAL residents,objections from 6 parish councils,district councillors& the support of our M.P.’s should surely count ? Plus of course the fact that Newcastle Borough Council Planning Committee have refused permission for access & strongly objected to the wind farm & that N.S.D.C. planning committee voted to refuse the wind farm itself..If this doesn’t make it clear what the vast majority of local residents feel-then democracy will have failed.

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  2. 2
    stardust39

    Democracy?
    Mrs May has three minutes to put her case and no right of reply?
    Truly we are in the land of Big Brother.

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  3. 3
    sarah

    Do you think the people of buildewas have a say? How does this wind farm effect so many people in MD? I think it’s terrible a group like Vortex have stuck there nose in, the facts on their website are a joke.

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  4. 4
    clem

    I’ve yet to hear a good reason why the people of Market Drayton are so against this wind farm. It’s near the town not in it so how can there be so many objections. Having visited many wind farms in Wales i just don’t see the problem. It’s seems that the ‘vast majority of residents’ are being told to object. How can a turbine miles from a persons home have any effect at all. We stay in a holiday home looking out at these turbines every year and have had NO problems at all. I would have no problems living near a wind farm.

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  5. 5
    clem

    Also the story they came up with about pilots not being able to fly over the turbines, made their campaign a joke.

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  6. 6
    EE

    Trouble is no one wants anything in their backyard. There are no health issues for the residents to worry about, it’s not like having an incinerator or your doorstep. We need more clean energy. What is their arguement against this farm, the way it looks? The turbines aren’t being put up in the town centre so how can all these residents be effected?

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  7. 7
    ADH

    If you want power then you should except the wind farm. I could understand if health was their concern or even noise but most of those conplaining don’t live close to the turbines. How many people live within 600m of this farm?

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  8. 8
    ADH

    flickering from the sun, affecting nearby residents’ health? What a joke, they really will think of any silly reason not to have this wind farm. Come on surely you could come up with at least one valid reason for stopping these turbines. Give them a choice the incinerator going up in Telford or a wind farm!

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  9. 9
    stardust39

    EE said “not like an incinerator on your doorstep” which is just what Telford are planning at Donnington. Publicity? All being kept very quiet as “it will create jobs”.

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  10. 10
    tory boy

    this is typical of the lefty government – forcing us to have these ghastly things in our area, i dont like them, they look modern, put them in the city i say, stupid green policies are a waste of everyones time and money

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  11. 11
    Lucy W

    Well I was walking in Berwyns Friday and have to say that I didn’t see any issue with this form of clean energy. I find the structures quite elegant to look at and very relaxing to watch.
    I’d have no problem with one in my field next to my home.

    Why not just put them up and move the people from Buildwas to Market drayton and visa versa. Everyone would be happy then?

    Sorry, but the NIMBY’s of Market Drayton should have their electricity cut off if they object to clean power generation so much.

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  12. 12
    Lucy W

    I also note the conspicuous abscence of Huw Peach of the Shropshire Green Party, from this thread when he is usually so vocal about green issues.

    I would have thought that the Green Party are all for this wind farm, but it would be interesting to know if the Greens only go green when its not in their back yard.

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  13. 13
    dave

    well done nuon for getting their employees to post dribble on here. How about shadow flicker, noise pollution, low frequency vibration, visual intrusion, raptor deaths, bats lungs exploding and the fact they have to be 100% backed up by conventional power stations meaning no reductions what so ever in carbon emissions. Wind power is a massive con, thats probably why its so hated.

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  14. 14
    some facts

    AIRCRAFT ARE FITTED WITH RADAR TO PREVENT THEM CRASHING INTO OBJECTS ON THE GROUND SUCH AS POWER PLANT

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  15. 15
    Lucy W

    Dave: What utter rubbish to say 100% back up means no carbon reduction. Doesn’t require 100% back up and for every Kw generated by wind there is a Kw saved from another source of less desirable generation. I visited a wind farm on Friday and didnt see any of your “problems”.

    I hope the objectors in Market Drayton pay for the Appeal when the Farm is allowed, because it will be when considered in an un-emotional way.
    Mark my words. It will be granted planning.

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  16. 16
    ADH

    well done nuon for getting their employees to post dribble on here. Dave noise pollution? have you stood near one, because i have in high winds and i filmed it. We were all shocked at how quiet it was, all we could hear was the wind. You shouldn’t just listen to Vortex, you seem to have your facts all messed up.

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  17. 17
    Elle

    Why do we never get the numbers of residents living near or next to this wind farm? Is it because the majority of those complaining live nowhere near the site? Why is it that they go up all over wales with no problems, we were chatting to a farmer who lives right next to turbines near Aberystwyth and he had never suffered any of these problems.

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  18. 18
    Boo

    Lucy W ‘Sorry, but the NIMBY’s of Market Drayton should have their electricity cut off if they object to clean power generation so much.’ I think they should, it sounds like a very backward place that just wants to make a fuss about their view. Wind power is the way forward, to protect our health and ensure we can produce our own power. And please stop with this claim that turbines don’t work, if it’s a big con then it’s the companies putting them up lossing out.

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  19. 19
    dave

    Lucy W: its not utter rubbish Lucy and proves yet again you are simply another “green” person who has done no research. People like will support anything if your told its “green”.
    The national grid only will accept upto 10% wind power as its unreliable. By that i mean 1 minute the wind is blowing and the turbine is turning the next it isnt and the turbine isnt turning. The output varies from minute to minute and so is unreliable. Somedays when there is no wind there will be no electricity.
    Becuase of this and because electricity cant be stored we have to have constant back up from power stations- gas or coal as hydro is used for peak elec times only. As it takes so long to fire up a coal/gas power station they are being powerd the whole time and the turbines inside them are simply switched off till when needed. Therefore they are still sending out pollution when the wind turbines are making electricity.

    I too wish wind farms worked and would save us from lack of supply and emissions. The truth is though they dont and they are an expensive con that will be a disaster for this country. They are 100% subsidiesd through a tariff on all elec bills and otherwise they would not be built as they are the most expensive form of elec generation.

    I suggest Lucy and ADH get your homes hooked to a wind farm and then we could all have a good laugh as you have no power for days on end or frequent intermittent power meaning you couldnt use your computer to write rubbish about a topic you clearly know nothing about.

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  20. 20
    some facts

    the wind is always blowing somewhere, especially out at sea.

    ergo, at a national level at least, there is always a wind turbine turning somewhere in the UK, thus although individual turbines may have a load factor of only 20-40% (largely because planners insist they are put in the least windy spots) night and day they are backing each other up and the more that are put up the more likely they can be used to provide a base load

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  21. 21
    Lucy W

    I still find it “strange” that the Shropshire Green Party are silent on this one?
    Sounds like being green is ecological NIMBYism. i.e. use green issues to object to incinerators in Telford but stay incredibly silent when a Green solution is proposed in their back yard.
    I though those greenies would be hammering on the Market Drayton residents’ doors preaching the benefits of green power generation rather than targeting the drivers of large 4×4 cars. No, sorry, being green for these people is only when it suit themselves. Hypocrits the lot of ‘em!

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  22. 22
    tory boy

    i simply loathe all things green, because the left has reinvented itself rom red to green, they still want us to live in poverty and share everything, its nonesense, i cant be bothered to educate you all about economics but maggie knew the score, you lot are bonkers, nuclear is the only sensible answer but we have enough coal for hundreds of years more anyway

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  23. 23
    Lucy W

    some facts and Dave: Well I agree will SomeFacts, once we get enough they will form an overall contribution.
    If Alexander Bell had listened to Dave’s arguements, he would have never invented the telephone as there would have been no one else to talk to.
    One wind turbine is not the solution, lots are, and its dissappointing that Market Drayton and the Shropshire Green Party dont get on board with this. Both groups are NIMBYs of the highest order.

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