A CONTROVERSIAL application for a 46m wind turbine in Laneshaw Bridge is set to go before Pendle Council’s Colne and District Committee tonight.
Planning officers are recommending councillors to approve the application for the turbine off Warley Wise Lane - but concerned residents of the Cowling Hill area are fighting to maintain the tranquillity of their rural landscape.
They say the size of the proposed turbine would be almost as high as Nelson’s Column and expressed concern at the hidden scale of proposed wind farm development in the area.
In March, Pendle Council refused an application for two turbines at a nearby farm on landscape grounds, but the developer has appealed to the planning inspector to have that decision overturned.
Objectors say another application for a single turbine on a nearby farm has also been made, and at least two more are in the pipeline.
A spokesman for the residents said: “The proposed development is wholly out of proportion and scale in this peaceful residential area. These forty six metre high turbines will dominate the landscape for decades to come and blight the lives of many local residents.”
“Local landowners have been approached and encouraged to submit individual applications – circumventing more stringent regulations which would apply in the event of a full-scale application for a wind farm.”
The planning inspectorate begins its consideration of an appeal by Huddersfield company DC21 Ltd for two similar turbines at Hollin Raikes Farm, Cowling, just 500 metres from the site in Warley Wise Lane, next week.