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A controversial wind farm proposal for a former opencast site in Heath Hayes has been scaled down from six to four turbines in the hope it will finally appease airport bosses.
A controversial wind farm proposal for a former opencast site in Heath Hayes has been scaled down from six to four turbines in the hope it will finally appease airport bosses.
Harworth Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK Coal, has yet to submit a planning application for the wind farm at Bleak House.
As exclusively revealed by The Chronicle three months ago, the proposed scheme is on the flight path to Birmingham Airport and therefore must be acceptable to the Civil Aviation Authority.
But Tom Breheny, UK Coal's developments director responsible for the project, said they were still awaiting a response from the airport several months down the line.
When the proposals were first unveiled a year ago it was for six 260ft wind turbines but Mr Breheny said this was then reduced to five.
But he told a community forum in Heath Hayes on Tuesday: "This has now gone down to four as the Civil Aviation Authority said …
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Harworth Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK Coal, has yet to submit a planning application for the wind farm at Bleak House.
As exclusively revealed by The Chronicle three months ago, the proposed scheme is on the flight path to Birmingham Airport and therefore must be acceptable to the Civil Aviation Authority.
But Tom Breheny, UK Coal's developments director responsible for the project, said they were still awaiting a response from the airport several months down the line.
When the proposals were first unveiled a year ago it was for six 260ft wind turbines but Mr Breheny said this was then reduced to five.
But he told a community forum in Heath Hayes on Tuesday: "This has now gone down to four as the Civil Aviation Authority said they would have been able to pick up one of the turbines on their radar."
He said they were now in discussions with Birmingham Airport about the four-turbine proposal and this was still ongoing.
"Unfortunately, part of the problem we have had is that the person we are consulting with is also involved in a public inquiry with Coventry Airport so has not spent as much time on this," Mr Breheny said.
He assured residents, who have set up a protest group to fight the proposals with a sustained campaign, including distributing around 1,000 leaflets, that four turbines was the maximum figure and could well be less.
He said none of the turbines would be closer than 600 metres from people's homes,
Keith Faulkner, of Littleworth Road, who spearheaded the campaign, said: "We were always under the impression that once the opencast mining was completed there the area would be allowed to be returned to its natural state. We are very angry about this and will make sure our opposition is heard."
Terry Withington, also of Littleworth Road, told Mr Breheny: 'It is about time we were left alone. We don't want this here. Please go somewhere else."
Residents were also angry that initial public exhibitions last October on the wind farm proposals were very poorly publicised. Mr Breheny said a total of just 35 people turned up to see the plans.
He assured residents that further public consultation and exhibitions would take place when the planning application was formally submitted and he would take local advice about how best to advertise them.