‘Monster’ turbines plan for Brontë landscape

Fury erupted in April over £12m scheme by Banks Renewable Energy to site four 328ft turbines on Thornton Moor, overlooking the former family Parsonage at Haworth.

But campaigners who have vowed to fight tooth and nail against the proposals have been devastated by a new scheme announced this week to put nine 377ft tall turbines (Nelson’s Column is 169ft) on moorland four miles away at Ovenden Moor.

Energy giant E.ON wants to upgrade the company’s two decade old Ovenden Moor Wind Farm by pensioning off the existing turbines and replacing them with ones more than twice as tall.

Residents of Brontë Country’s picturesque villages were dismayed when the 48m (157ft) tall turbines at Ovenden – 1,440ft above sea level – were granted planning permission in 1993.

But campaigners who fought the low key turbines in the first place say their impact will be insignificant compared to the proposed replacement turbines which are two and half times taller.

It is also feared that anchoring the bigger turbines into place will involve injecting 35,000 tonnes of fresh concrete into the moorland which can never be removed even after the proposed wind farm is mothballed in 25 years’ time.

Brontë Society Chairman Sally McDonald said yesterday: “In my opinion, the smaller turbines already there are damaging enough.

“But in comparison with the proposed new ones they are insignificant. These new ones will be huge and monstrous.”

E.ON’s development partner Yorkshire Wind Power Ltd is seeking consent for nine wind turbines measuring 115m from the base to the tip of the blades.

An E.ON spokesman said: ““The proposal would see the existing 23 turbines, which have been supplying renewable power for over 18 years, being removed and replaced with nine modern turbines.

“This will allow the site to more than double its generation capacity from 9.2MW to 22.5MW, whilst using far fewer turbines.”