COLCHESTER & NORTH EAST ESSEX FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
PRESS RELEASE: 23RD MAY 2011
01206/383123
EXCITING NEWS - INSPECTOR APPROVES MIDDLEWICK WINDFARM ON THE DENGIE PENINSULA
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator for Colchester & NE Essex Friends of the Earth said:
"It is exciting news that the Inspector, Elizabeth Fieldhouse, has approved the RidgeWind appeal against Maldon Council's refusal to allow the Middlewick windfarm on the flat farm fields 3km south east of Southminster.
These nine turbines will provide the average electricity usage of over nine thousand homes - and far more than those as energy efficiency measures become normal in the future.
When we were asking people in Southminster and Burnham for their views, the majority were in favour of these slender and graceful wind turbines to provide clean energy.
The Inspector says (76): "In the light of my conclusions at the end of each issue, on balance the wide landscape and huge skies have been found suitable to accommodate the proposal."
This is the third windfarm now approved on our east coast of Essex. The Hockley Farm ten turbines behind the Bradwell nuclear power plant has been approved by two separate inquiries and a High Court challenge thrown out recently. Near St Osyth five wind turbines at Earls Hall Farm were approved after a public inquiry - they would provide the equivalent electricity needs of the whole of Brightlingsea and St Osyth.
Although the UK has the best wind resource in Europe, we have been slow to follow the lead of countries where windfarms are normal. Denmark has a third of its electricity from wind. However, last year the National Grid reported that wind provided 6.6% of the UK's electricity."
ENDS