Climate campaigners outraged as wind farm plan is axed

Ministers back inspector's rejection of £55m scheme
· Impact on landscape 'would outweigh benefits'

David Ward
Friday March 3, 2006
The Guardian


Climate change campaigners yesterday condemned the government for rejecting a £55m plan to build 27 wind turbines each 115 metres (377ft) high on a windy ridge just outside the eastern boundary of the Lake District national park.
The energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, and rural affairs minister Jim Knight said they had accepted an inspector's conclusions that the need to protect the landscape outweighed the benefits of securing a source of renewable energy.

The decision was denounced by bodies promoting wind power as part of the answer to the problems caused by climate change. The turbines, between Borrowdale and Bretherdale near Tebay, Cumbria, would have produced 1½ times the power of Cumbria's existing 11 wind farms and 77 turbines. The Whinash scheme, 30 miles east of the Sellafield nuclear plant, had divided campaigners, with Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth in support but the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Council for National Parks and Friends of the Lake District against.
Other opponents included environmentalist David Bellamy, who threatened to chain himself to one of the turbines if they were built; writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg; climber Sir Chris Bonington; and writer Hunter Davies. David Maclean, Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border, had condemned the wind farm as "a steel noose being placed round the neck of the Lake District".

The ministers' decision, which follows a seven-week public inquiry in Cumbria last year, is likely to cause a rethink of the development of windpower in remote, windy parts of the country with a high landscape value. Promoters were said to have been scouring Cumbria in search of new turbine sites. But wind power supporters said yesterday they feared the balance would now tip towards nuclear energy.

Commenting on the recommendation of the planning inspector, David Rose, Mr Wicks said: "Tackling global warming is critical but we must also nurture the immediate environment and wildlife. This is at the crux of the debate over wind energy. On this occasion, we agree with the independent inspector that the impact on landscape and recreation would outweigh the benefits in terms of reducing carbon emissions."

But Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said he was appalled by the decision. "On the one hand, ministers say they support renewable energy and on the other turn down carefully worked-up proposals that would have minimal environmental impacts while helping to fight climate change - the greatest threat of all.

"The ministers who decided this should be ashamed. No wonder the government is failing to tackle climate change. As each day goes by Labour's commitments to the environment become more and more unbelievable."

Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, said: "Any government that wants to expand airports and turn down windfarms is simply not fit to govern. It's hard to believe that the nuclear industry has not played some role in this.

"Climate change will ravage beautiful areas like the Lake District. I hope those responsible will be willing to explain to future generations how they played their part in allowing the savage grip of global warming to trash the countryside and claim hundreds of thousands of lives."

"We are delighted," said Andrew Forsyth, director of Friends of the Lake District. "We feared that the requirement for renewable energy would outweigh questions of the damage caused to the site and Cumbria in general. But it is quite clear that the weight of evidence made it easy for ministers to decide it was the wrong development in the wrong place on the wrong scale."