Mini wind farm plan ruffles feathers

Penistone Town Council planning committee is objecting to plans for five 25m high wind turbines in the grounds of the new Penistone Grammar School which is due to open at Easter 2011.

The committee has told Barnsley Council, which is providing the new school under its Building Schools for the Future programme, that they do not mind the school having one or two turbines but five is far too many.

The new school is being built on a site near the existing grammar school and it is proposed having the wind farm in the extensive school grounds as part of a commitment to renewable energy

But Coun Carol Bradbury said: "We understand they will be using some of the power for the school and selling the rest to the National Grid.

"Penistone is an ideal site for a wind farm with it being so near the Pennines where it is very windy but there are other applications for turbines in the pipeline and if these are approved there will be a forest of turbines around the town and we will be surrounded by them which we do not want."