Residents in Wrightington set to fight 90m wind turbine plans

The application to build the development on land near Toogood Lane, Wrightington, was submitted to West Lancashire council earlier this month and has already attracted concern from people living nearby who claim the turbine will have a detrimental effect on the area's green belt landscape.

Karen Collins, a member of the Wrat Pack (Wrightington Residents Against Turbines), said that residents were worried that they would have to live with the effects of the development for years to come.

She said: "At 90m – almost 300ft – the turbine will be twice the height of the Mormon church spire in Chorley. It will have significant impact on the landscape character.

"The size and scale of this wind turbine is totally inappropriate for a small village. This is commercialisation of the country's green belt."

The council's policy on renewable energy supports the installation of renewable schemes providing there is no negative effect to the local area.

The policy also states that planning permission on green belt land would only be granted in very special circumstances and a planning statement from Freshfields explains that "consideration should be given to the whether the development constitutes" this.

Janet Watt, who has lived in Church Lane, for more than 25 years, is just one of the residents who has objected to the plans.

Among her concerns were the impact of the turbine on the visual amenity for residents and visitors, noise and vibration disturbance, the flicker shadow – the flicker effect from the sunlight shining through the moving blades – and the effect the development could have on the area's wildlife.

An environment report from the applicant, Freshfield, stated that there are no records of protected or notable species held within the survey area. It also said that although the turbine will be a noticeable feature it is not considered to be out of scale in relation to its surroundings.

If you've driven by the University of Guam campus recently, you may have noticed a new feature at Dean's Circle. UOG director of integrated marketing communications Jonas Macapinlac says the college's first wind turbine has been up and running since March.

"It is a 65' tower and a one-kilowatt wind turbine and it's at Dean's Circle House 32, the Center for Island Sustainability Model Home, and within the next couple of weeks as we make sure all the settings are correct and the calibrations are correct then we're going to start collecting data" he said.

The turbine will be used to charge an electric car as well as pump water from water encatchments to the site's sustainable garden. Macapinlac adds that this turbine complies with requests from the Guam Land Use Commission as neighbors expressed concerns about a 100' tower's effects, including noise pollution and how it would fall in the event of a typhoon.