Richard Tamplin, the planning inspector who heard the appeal, ‘applauded’ the ‘dedication and persistence’ of Mr and Mrs Bradford and acknowledged that the urgency of meeting Devon’s renewable energy targets for 2010 weighed very heavily in favour of the proposal. However, he judged the benefits were even more heavily outweighed by the unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the distinctive local landscape around the appeal site. The adverse impact on the viewpoints of Brent Tor, which he said was ‘such an unusual and special place’, and Pork Hill, ‘would damage the special qualities of the National Park’. The size and motion of the turbines would destroy the fragile quality of this ‘quiet, still landscape’ and would be ‘wholly inappropriate’ to the setting of Brent Tor and the scheduled barrow cemetery on the crest of the Beacon just below. The ‘alien feature’ would also cause ‘significant harm to the longer views’ from the National Park and the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. One of the statutory purposes of Dartmoor as a National Park would be compromised. He also considered there would be a significant adverse effect on the residential amenity of people living up to two kilometres from the site.

Expansion of the nation’s electricity generation by wind turbines may be eco-friendly, but it’s not winning hearts and minds in local communities, says Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Morgan Williams. Dr William’s report – Wind Power, People and Place – released today, said tensions were being increased by the limited scope for most New Zealanders to be involved in wind power development.

It is the first wind farm proposal for the shire, and will be located along its border with the Moyne Shire between Penshurst and Caramut. Between 13 and 15 wind turbines have been proposed with a maximum nominal rated power of 29.9 Megawatts (MW).

FEARS Louth could become a 'forest' of wind turbines prompted town councillors to object to a plan to build the first one in the town. Nancy Stockwell wants to put up an eight metre high wind turbine in her back garden in Grimsby Road, Louth. But Coun Tony Lione said: "I'd hate to see in ten years time a forest of these things around the town. The neighbours will suffer with the noise."

Some of the protesters who attended the meeting to oppose the new turbine Safety fears have been raised over plans to build a 400ft wind turbine next to a quiet residential area. Concerned residents packed a meeting yesterday to discuss the proposals to put the £2million turbine at Princes Soft Drinks factory in Weaverthorpe Road, Tong, Bradford. It has been hailed as a 21st century landmark for the city and a way of dramatically cutting carbon emissions from one of the district's major businesses. But organisers of the meeting, at Tong Conservative Club yesterday, claim residents could be put in danger if the turbine is allowed.

The energy company is holding an open day at the Waewaepa stockyard from 10am-2pm, to discuss yet another proposed farm - this time in the ranges east of Pahiatua. Many locals, some of whom only found out about the farm in a mailbox leaflet a month ago, were not impressed, Mr Taylor said. "They have put all the glossy brochures out, and all the bull**** and jellybeans or whatever you want to call it. I am not that rapt about it."

The Co-operative Group, which hopes to build the wind farm on land near Langford and Biggleswade, has announced its plans for a package of community benefits, including an environmental education programme and a community trust fund. But meanwhile campaigners against the development have been distributing leaflets at school gates - warning that it could be a potential health time bomb. A couple from Enfield ...are urging people to sign an online petition asking the Government to enforce a buffer zone of at least two kilometres between industrial wind turbines and homes.

Bedford Borough Council rejected the scheme saying the scale of the turbines would impact on nearby homes, historic park land and an ancient monument.

Alternative energy advocates and residents opposed to giant wind turbines overlooking their homes in Warm Springs Valley are expected to square off when Nevada Wind's proposed wind farm comes before the Washoe County Planning Commission on Tuesday. ...No matter what the planning commission decides, the project is expected to be appealed to the Washoe County Commission.

The conclusion of the Ontario Municipal Board hearing into the Amaranth portion of the 132- megawatt Melancthon II wind farm is being scheduled for the township offices at Laurel on Feb. 27 and 28. ...At the earlier hearing, Mr. Jackson indicated his dissatisfaction with an earlier Certificate of Approval for the first of two 230 kV transformers at a time when neighbour Paul Thompson and others said they were still unhappy with the noise abatement.

MARS HILL, Maine — This year, when Steven and Tammie Fletcher took their traditional New Year’s Eve walk to the top of Mars Hill, the crisp winter stillness mixed with something unfamiliar: the whoosh of the new windmills towering over the northern Maine mountaintop. This is not how it was supposed to be, say the Fletchers and their neighbors on the north side of Mars Hill, where a 28-turbine wind farm, the largest yet built in New England, began operating in December. Residents say that town officials and company representatives repeatedly assured them that the wind farm would be silent. Instead, they say, the windmills have disrupted their mountainside idyll. On days with low cloud cover, when the pulsing, rushing noise is loudest, wind farm neighbors say it can disrupt their sleep and drown out the rushing brook that was once the only sound here. “It changes your whole feeling about being in the woods,” said Tammie Fletcher, whose mountainside house boasts floor-to-ceiling views of the ridge where the windmills now stand.

...a 350-foot wind turbine may be too much of a good thing for Mountain Hill Road residents. ...The planning board made its decision Monday night, despite stiff opposition from neighborhood residents who packed town hall to protest the plan. ‘‘It's not that we're against wind energy, but the drop zone for one of the turbines would be within 85 to 200 feet of our neighbors,'' Mountain Hill Road resident William Gould said. ‘‘These things are monstrous, and they are right on top of our neighborhood. The impact would be devastating. ‘‘The bylaw says five acres and wind is enough for a turbine. If this is approved, what neighborhood is next?''

Eight days ago, to the jubilation of its critics and environmentalists, it emerged that the Scottish executive was "minded to refuse" the £500m scheme as it would seriously damage the moor's extremely fragile, internationally-protected habitats for rare birds such as dunlin, golden eagles, merlin, golden plover and red-throated divers. The moor itself is one of the most ecologically-significant peat bogs in Europe. Scottish ministers have since come under intense pressure to reverse that provisional decision before making a final announcement this month. Councillors, crofters' leaders and the developers are vigorously lobbying ministers and the European commission to save the north Lewis scheme, or at least find a compromise. Today the local Scottish National party MSP, Alasdair Allan, will face those bitterly-disappointed people at a meeting on Lewis.

A city committee decided Wednesday to postpone its decision until at least Thursday about whether Graham Findlay should be allowed to install a power-generating turbine on top of a 10-metre pole in the yard of his home near Fisher Park. ...About 20 of Findlay's neighbours showed up at the committee meeting Wednesday to express their opposition to the turbine.

If you see some balloons floating on the hill behind Graham Waste, don't think there is a sale on used cars. The balloons are part of the on-going Planning Board review process for two wind turbines with a proposed siting off Route 3A. Beginning today (Friday) and continuing throughout the weekend, balloons will be floated as the approximate height of the two proposed wind turbine locations to aid the Planning Board in visualizing the scale of the project.

THE first batch of ballot papers were yesterday dispatched to residents who live closest to the proposed site of a contentious 21-turbine wind farm west of Thurso. Caithness West Community Council is surveying the 1000-or-so electors in its patch to find out whether they support or oppose the 57.5 megawatt development. The timing is particularly sensitive as Baillie Wind Farm Ltd's scheme for farmland near Shebster is being tabled at a Highland Council hearing next month. The community council is among the objectors to the proposal, which would add to the existing nearby six-turbine cluster at Forss. But it is pledging to reflect the feedback of the vote in its representation.

A dispute over transmission lines for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm landed in court this week. ...Barnstable officials filed a complaint in Barnstable Superior Court Wednesday claiming the Cape Cod Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over the transmission cables that would link the turbines to the shoreline. In October, the commission rejected a plan to have the transmission cables make landfall in Barnstable, and Cape Wind appealed that decision to the state Energy Facilities Siting Board. In the complaint filed Wednesday, Barnstable officials contend the state Energy Facilities Siting Board does not have the authority to review the commission's denial of the transmission lines.

Many of the landowners whose property abuts the Beaver Ridge windmill project met at the Beaver Ridge Road home of Sally Hadyniak Saturday afternoon to voice some concerns about the windmill project and explain why they want the town to reinstate its commercial development review ordinance. ...[Resident Jeff] Keating explained at Saturday's press conference that he wants to see in writing that the builders of the project, formerly referred to as Competitive Energy Services (CES) but now known as Beaver Ridge Wind LLC, will abide by the standards set forth in the ordinance. Originally, CES had worked with the town while it created the ordinance but, according to the abutters, were ultimately unwilling to make the windmill project meet the ordinance's guidelines, and encouraged the town to get rid of the ordinance after it had been enacted.

PUGWASH - The head of a citizens group fighting a proposed wind farm in the Gulf Shore area is asking the province to stop the project until its safety can be proven. "Please err on the side of caution and call a moratorium of all wind power developments that are any closer than two kilometres of a residence until independent and government research has been done to establish the safe and healthy distance from a turbine people should be living," Lisa Betts said in a letter to Premier Rodney MacDonald.

Selectmen decided at Tuesday night's board meeting to wait 60 days from June 23 before rendering their decision on a petition that seeks to rescind previously approved town laws allowing wind power facilities to be built on town ridges. Responding to lawyer Maura Horodyski's question about the petition and the board's response, Chairman Bob Sutton said they agreed to have lawyer Jennifer Kreckel of Rumford review the petition before they decide whether to follow its intent.