TCI Renewables will not fight Basingstoke and Deane decision to reject Woodmancott Down wind farm plan

A company hoping to build a wind farm in north Hampshire has decided not to fight a decision to reject its controversial plans.

TCI Renewables, based in Oxford, applied to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council for planning permission to install six 130-metre high wind turbines on land at Woodmancott Down, between Dummer and Micheldever.

Councillors on the development control committee voted to support planning officers’ recommendations for refusal because of the impact the development would have on ecology, the landscape, nearby conservation areas and the safety of operations at Lasham Airfield.

In July 2014, Bruce Hutt, finance director at TCI Renewables told The Gazette that the company would appeal the borough council’s decision, after speaking in favour of the farm at the meeting, saying it would generate power to 11,000 homes.

But the six-month period in which the firm had to lodge an appeal has now passed, which has come as good news to the Save Our Scenic (SOS) Hampshire Downs campaign group, which actively opposed the plans, staging a 200-strong protest in November 2013.

Jonathan Moseley, spokesman for SOS, said: “We are very pleased that they aren’t going to appeal but we aren’t letting our guard down because we suspect that they will come back with something else.”

The campaign group argued that the location of the wind turbines was not appropriate to the environment.

A spokeswoman for TCI Renewables said: “TCI Renewables has decided not to lodge an appeal against the council’s decision to refuse planning permission for the proposed six wind turbine wind farm at Woodmancott Down.

“TCI Renewables still considers this to be a suitable site for a wind farm of the scale proposed and firmly believes that onshore wind farms continue to have a very important role to play in the UK’s future energy mix.”