Wind farm expansion plan set to create new turbulence

Proposals would create biggest turbine development in England

- GEORGE LYTHGOE

ALMOST two decades ago, residents in the towns and villages near vast moorland straddling Greater Manchester and Lancashire were left in uproar.

In the mid-2000s, plans had been submitted to build 26 wind turbines on a large area between Rochdale and Rossendale. The Scout Moor Wind Farm project sparked the beginning of a turbulent saga that continues to this day.

Now, almost 20 years later, people in Rochdale, Edenfield, and Rawtenstall are faced with yet another plan for a wind farm - and this one is expected to be England's biggest.

What has been named 'Scout Moor II' would see 21 bigger and more powerful wind turbines built next to the ones already standing on the moorlands. They would be capable of powering around 100,000 homes per year, which is around 10 per cent of Greater Manchester's needs, according to the renewable energy developer Cubico Sustainable Investments.

For the people of Norden, who live directly south of the current wind farm, this is all too familiar.

Local politician Coun James Gartside has represented the village of Norden since the 1980s, and he's not sure what the community's response will be this time. Back in the mid-2000s when the first wind farm was tabled by Peel, the Norden councillor was amongst the many people opposing the plans in his area as well as other villages on the periphery of the moors.

They even managed to rope in television presenter, author and environmental campaigner David Bellamy to stop the new turbines.

The campaigners feared the high level of concrete used to keep the turbines standing would mean irreversible damage to the peatlands in the area.

Despite their best efforts to stop Scout Moor Wind Farm happening, planning permission was granted in 2005 and construction started in 2007.

However, when plans were submitted to double the wind farm's size in 2011, campaigners were successful in getting it stopped.