Campaigners fighting against plans for wind farms in the Burnham-On-Sea area have welcomed a second victory in a week after EDF’s plans were turned down by Sedgemoor District Council just days after Ecotricity’s proposals were thrown out by the High Court.
Ecotricity’s latest appeal against the Secretary of State’s decision to reject their application for four wind turbines at West Huntspill was rejected in the High Court last Tuesday (28th April), as we first reported here.
And on Friday, Sedgemoor refused planning permission for the proposed EDF wind farm development at Withy End, Causeway, Woolavington.
The reasons for refusal were an unacceptable intrusion on the flat landscape; an unacceptable cumulative effect on the landscape when combined with other non-wind developments; and the potential harm to biodiversity such as birds on the flight path between the Severn Estuary and Somerset Levels.
Helen Nethercott from the Huntspill Wind Farm Action Group told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “While we can be very pleased with this result, we must be mindful that EDF has six months to appeal against this decision.”
“We have been fighting wind farm applications from these developers since November 2009. The initial applications were refused by Sedgemoor but Ecotricity appealed against that decision and EDF, while not submitting an appeal at that time, came back with a further planning application in January 2014.”
“There have been many meetings, planning hearings, challenges, appeals and High Court visits. All of these have a huge cost implication. The Huntspill Wind farm Action Group raised approximately £20,000 through fundraising events and the generosity of donors. This paid for leaflet drops, information boards and we contributed towards some costs during the Planning Inspector’s visit.”
