Inspector rejects bid to create wind farm

The Planning Inspectorate has dismissed an appeal by EnergieKontor UK against Craven Council's decision to refuse planning permission for the wind farm which would have consisted of five 100 metre-tall turbines at Brightenber Hill, near Gargrave, Skipton.

Critics of the scheme banded together and formed Friends of Craven Landscape to fight the proposed development which they claimed would dominate and damage the landscape, blight the lives of those living within close proximity and have a serious negative impact on cultural heritage.

John Henderson, of Kelber Farm, Coniston Cold, who lives about three fields away from the site, welcomed the Planning Inspectorate decision.

He said: "We are very pleased. Because of the drive for energy and renewables, it is a question of 'we will have a wind farm unless you can show extraordinary good reasons why we should not.'"

When Craven Council rejected the application, an appeal by EnergieKontor UK led to a public inquiry earlier this year.

In his appeal decision, inspector John Braithwaite stated that the main issues were the effect of the five wind turbine generators on the character of the landscape, the settings of nearby heritage assets and residential amenity at Ash Tree Farm and other properties.

The report said that if the appeal was to be allowed and the resultant permission was to be implemented, the family who live at Ash Tree Farm "would be living within a wind farm landscape and the five turbines would dominate their property and their lives."

It concluded: "The adverse effect of the wind farm on residential amenity at Ash Tree Farm is not outweighed by the long-term environmental and economic benefits of the renewable energy scheme."

It said that it would "blight the lives" of the family "for a generation."