Wind farm on historic battlefield site 'may be only option'
A pro wind farm campaigner has warned protesters fighting plans to build seven giant turbines next to the Naseby battlefield there may be nowhere else to put them.
Electricity giant E.ON has submitted plans to build the 414-foot wind turbines on land owned by Kelmarsh Hall, in Northamptonshire.
Local residents and historians have already vowed to fight the application, saying the giant structures will ruin the English Civil War battlefield, viewed by historians as the birthplace of democracy in this country.
However, Grahame Jordan, from the Pro Wind Alliance said the turbines would not stop education on the site.
He said: "What they object to is the setting of it.
"But just because something is visible does it have a damaging affect? "
"They obviously say yes. But it doesn't affect people. It doesn't affect animals. It is purely about what it looks like.
"Part of the objection is they say 'why don't you build it elsewhere?'"
Mr Jordan, however, said simply finding other spots was easier said than done, as planners are unable to put wind farms in much of the country.
Wind farms cannot be built near police or fire stations, as they cause interference with the radios, or within 25 miles of an airport, or in towns, where the turbines cannot rely on wind.
Mr Jordan said: "There are a lot of areas you can't actually go in.
"Then there are areas you can go in but are not suitable - for example you can't put it in a town because it would be useless.
"There are more 'can't go' areas than areas you can put a farm in."
Mr Jordan also warned residents in Northamptonshire should be prepared to see more wind farms springing up in the county, warning there was little alternative sources of clean energy.
He said: "If there is an alternative to turbines, if there is another alternative then let's do that.
"But in Northamptonshire you don't have large areas of flowing water, you don't have high ground to build a hydro-electric dam. Turbines are the one thing we can get to work."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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