Campaigners rally support to halt huge Yorkshire Wolds wind farm
It follows an application by RWE npower renewables for a wind measuring mast at Cottam - only a couple of miles from Sledmere, a location used by the artist David Hockney and a focus for tourists seeking to explore “Hockney Country.”
Up to 10 turbines standing 380ft could be built at the site, a few hundred metres from a deserted mediaeval village, one of the highest points in the Wolds.
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Hide AdDiann Atkin, clerk of Cottam parish council, farmer and artist, has set up her own website and petition. She said: “One voice is insignificant but when joined by others it is very powerful. It is a magical landscape because it changes all the time, one moment brown, the next green. The crops are never in the same field, it is like a tapestry.”
Neighbour Tim Genn is urging people to express their views on RWE’s website before the January 6 deadline: “I urge anybody who loves the Wolds and wants to continue enjoying its exceptional tranquillity and remoteness to let the developers know they don’t want it.” RWE said a planning application for the farm was not expected to be submitted till 2015, and studies would be carried out next year, and a second public exhibition held. They said they were grateful for the “valuable” feedback so far.