Campaigners rally support to halt huge Yorkshire Wolds wind farm

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to halt plans for a huge wind farm which residents say will blight one of the most remote and beautiful locations in the heart of the Yorkshire Wolds.
The little church at Cottam medieval village with the development site behind.The little church at Cottam medieval village with the development site behind.
The little church at Cottam medieval village with the development site behind.

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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Diann 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.