Attached is some guidance for writing a letter of objection to the turbine proposal from SPR.

There is a lot of information, you do not need to include all of it. 

They key thing is that there are only certain reasons that can be used for an objection to be valid so please read the model letter carefully.

Most important is to just put in a few comments about the topics that are of most concern to you.

It is important that you get your letter written before July 23rd and to us (or posted to Wychavon) by July 24th

Objections are valid for each and every house member over the age of 16.

So please remember to send a separate letter from each and everyone over 16. Each one counts separately. If you sign the letter jointly, it only counts as one.

Also remember to ask your family, friends and neighbours to do the same.

To ensure that letters are properly counted by Wychavon we have arranged for you to be able to drop the letters off locally and we will then take them to Wychavon and get a receipt for it.

‘Right Click’ and ‘Save As’ :  Objection Template Letter for the Planning Application

If you wish to object online, go here (Click on ‘Comment on Application’, then remember to select the ‘Object’ radio button)

http://bit.ly/ObjectToPlanningApplication

Our local letter drops are:

Driftway, Evesham Road, Church Lench (Through the door NOT the outside letter box) and

The Old Chapel, Atch Lench, WR11 4SW (in the box on the wall)

If you need your letter collected please let us know – call Rod on 07929 671019 or your village rep click here: Village Reps

Many thanks for your support.

Kind regards,

Rod Stroud and The VVASP team.

To be known as the  “Wind Turbines (Minimum Distances from Residential Premises) Act 2010”, it makes provision for a minimum distance between wind turbines and residential premises according to the size of the wind turbine; and for connected purposes.

In essence, it says that

No relevant authority may grant planning permission for the construction of a wind turbine generator unless it meets the minimum distance requirement.

unless

“The owners of ALL residential premises which fall within the minimum distance requirement for the proposed wind turbine generator MUST AGREE IN WRITING to the construction of the wind turbine generator.” Also small turbines under 25m to highest blade tip are exempt.

and it sets out those distances as:

If the height of the wind turbine generator is 
  (a) greater than 25m, but does not exceed 50m, the minimum distance requirement is 1000m;
  (b) greater than 50m, but does not exceed 100m, the minimum distance requirement is 1500m;
  (c) greater than 100m, but does not exceed 150m, the minimum distance requirement is 2000m;
  (d) greater than 150m, the minimum distance requirement is 3000m.

In essence this would put an immediate stop to the proposal of ScottishPower Renewables to construct 415 ft (40 storey high) alien structures in the Vale.

You can access the bill directly from the Government sited dedicated to this bill here: Click Here

Or download the bill from here: Right Click and ‘Save As’

“Confidence has been lost in the ETSU model”

4th June 2010
See original post here: http://www.cieh.org/ehn/ehn3.aspx?id=31194

The Department of Energy and Climate Change has commissioned fresh research on wind farm noise. The move, which has been welcomed by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) , comes despite ministerial assurances earlier this year that there were no plans to change the existing guidance on assessing and rating wind farm noise.

The guidance has become increasing controversial. Howard Price, CIEH principal policy officer, said: ‘The guidance currently in use, ETSU-R-97, is now more than 13 years old. It was developed before the current generation of large turbines began to be built and has had to modified unofficially in practice.’

Mr Price said that, despite its limitations, the guidance is referred to in the draft national policy statement for renewable energy, released last November. As an official consultee, the CIEH warned that future decisions based on ETSU would be unsafe.

Former energy minister, Lord Hunt, wrote last October in support of the use of ETSU-R-97 and junior minister David Kidney repeated in February that it gave ‘a reasonable degree of protection to wind farm neighbours’.

However, said Mr Price, it seems officials were already drafting specifications for new research. Two research tenders, one to analyse how noise impacts of wind farms are considered in planning and another to reassess the evidence base on reported noise complaints, were issued before the general election.

Mr Price added: ‘Confidence has been lost in the ETSU model and it is good that this has now been recognised. ‘Neither the government nor the energy providers could afford to risk planning consents being overturned because they were based on inadequate guidance. Hopefully, something everyone agrees on will emerge soon.’

Below are extracts from his letter to a coalition MP’s

From: Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP

Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government

6 July 2010

Dear Colleague,

Abolition of Regional Planning

“I am today abolishing the bureaucracy of regional planning, revoking the red tape of Regional Strategies that envelop councils across England outside London.

John Prescott’s legacy of Regional Strategies added unnecessary bureaucracy to the planning system. They were a failure. They were expensive and time-consuming. They alienated people, pitting them against development instead of encouraging people to build in their local area.”

it goes on to say:

“Our new planning system will be clear, efficient and will put greater power in the hands of local people, rather than unelected regional bodies”

and furthermore:

“Moving forward, we will make it easier for local councils, working with their communities, to agree and amend local plans in a way that maximises the involvement of neighbourhoods.”

So what does this mean to you and me?

It means that if you are affected by a planning application your view counts more than someone who is not affected by it!

Published
6 July 2010

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles is today putting a swift end to Whitehall’s grip on local planning policy by scrapping Regional Strategies and their centrally imposed building targets that failed to increase housebuilding.

Regional targets intended to build 3 million homes nationally by 2020 were put in place by the previous Government despite fears that they would force councils to cut into the Greenbelt. However, the reality is that construction has slowed down so much the country is facing the lowest peacetime housebuilding rates since 1924.

An order laid in parliament today will revoke Regional Strategies with immediate effect. Councils will now have the freedom to prepare their local plans without having to follow top-down targets from regional quangos and bureaucrats that prescribe exactly what, where and when to build.

Mr Pickles also pledged that direct and substantial benefits for councils who support construction would be the centrepiece of this radical restoration of local power. The money will be used to help ensure more new homes are built for local people, and matched with more new jobs and investment.

From today, power will be handed back to councils and communities to make their own decisions on planning that can get the country building again. Communities will, once again, be able to solve local housing challenges in a way that makes sense for them. In return councils will be offered powerful new incentives that ensure they benefit from development they welcome.

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said:

"Communities will no longer have to endure the previous government’s failed Soviet tractor style top-down planning targets – they were a terrible, expensive, time-consuming way to impose house building and worst of all threatened the destruction of the Green Belt.

"I promised to get rid of them and today I’m revoking regional plans with immediate effect – hammering another nail in the coffin of unwanted and an unaccountable regional bureaucracy. They were a national disaster that robbed local people of their democratic voice, alienating them and entrenching opposition against new development.

"Regional Strategies built nothing but resentment – we want to build houses. So instead we will introduce powerful new incentives for local people so they support the construction of new homes in the right places and receive direct rewards from the proceeds of growth to improve their local area."

Mr Pickles made the announcement in a keynote speech to the Local Government Association conference where he told Town Halls they were back in charge of local affairs.

Councils will now be free to protect Green Belt surrounding 30 towns across the country. The targets system forced them to redraw Green Belt boundaries and designate large areas of countryside for new development. Communities will now have the power to prevent encroachment on the Green Belt and decide themselves where they want to build.

Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark said:

"Today is another significant step in the Coalition Government’s drive to transfer powers from remote bureaucracies to local communities. Regional edicts, which allowed communities no say, injected poison into the planning system which stymied development. By allowing communities to shape their neighbourhoods and to share in the benefits, we are beginning to restore the idea that development can be a force for good, rather than something to be resisted at all costs."

Notes to editors

1. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles confirmed today in a Written Parliamentary Statement that Regional Strategies will be revoked with immediate effect, as set out in the Coalition Agreement. In the longer term the legal basis for Regional Strategies will be abolished through the Localism Bill that will be introduced in the current Parliamentary session. A copy of the written statement can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/statements/newsroom/regionalstrategies.

2. Regional Strategies have been revoked through Section 79 (6) of The 2009 Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act. Accompanying the Parliamentary Statement is guidance for Local Authorities that covers the period between the  revocation of Regional Strategies and legislation to abolish them altogether. A copy of the statement and guidance can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/letterregionalstrategies.

3. The abolition of regional strategies provides a clear signal of the importance attached to the development and application of local spatial plans, in the form of Local Development Framework Core Strategies and Development Plan Documents. Local plans drawn up with the help of the community will become the basis for local planning decisions, and future reform will make it easier for local councils to agree and amend local plans with their local community, in a way that maximises the involvement of neighbourhoods. The introduction of incentives to replace building targets will be a top priority for the new Government and take place early in the spending review.

4. Towns and areas that were planning to make Green Belt cuts and reviews because of Whitehall-imposed targets will now be able to make their own decisions where new development is built. They include: Bath, Bedworth, Bournemouth, Bristol, Bromsgrove, Broxbourne, Cheltenham, Chertsey, Coventry, Gloucester, Guildford, Harlow, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Leeds, Lichfield, Maidenhead, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Nottingham, Nuneaton, Oxford, Redditch, Redhill, Reigate, Rushcliffe, Stevenage, Solihull, Tunbridge Wells, Welwyn, and Woking and Worcester and in West Yorkshire beyond Leeds.

PUBLIC MEETINGS

At Church Lench Village Hall

Saturday 3rd July at 10 am prompt

and

Monday 5th July at 8pm prompt

Please wait before writing your objection letters,

You have until 31st July to write

You will need the right information, which must be on planning grounds for your letter to be effective

We will give you full details on WHEN and WHAT to write in YOUR letter of objection so that it counts.

VVASP will also show further information from the application including PhotoMontages – juts what they WILL look like if they are allowed to go ahead.

We have more ‘NO’ Boards available for YOUR house, (FOC) please call Rod on 871086 and we will arrange to put them up for you.

THE NEW MP representing the Lenches area has pledged to do everything she can to help campaigners in their battle against the Lenchwick windfarm.

Karen Lumley was elected to represent the Redditch County constituency – which following boundary changes now includes the Lenches – after beating former home secretary Jacqui Smith to the seat in the recent general election.

Speaking to the Observer Mrs Lumley said she realised the windfarm was the biggest, if not the only, issue for people in the area and would make good on her promise during the election campaign to back the Vale Villages Against Scottish Power (VVASP) group fighting proposals to install five 125 metre wind turbines in the Lenchwick area.

"It’s not my decision to make, it’s local councillors decision to make and I am sure they will make it without any influence from me or anybody else but I have spoken to many local residents and it is the biggest issue, it is the only issue, in the Lenches and I have been to see them, looked at their stuff and I will be helping them as much as I can," she said.

"I do understand a planning application is imminent and once we see it I need to sit down look at what the planning objections are and put the best way forward at which point I will be speaking to somebody higher up the chain to see what can be done to help them."

Mrs Lumley also took the opportunity to hit back at criticism from pro windfarm campaigners which stated her stance on the issue put her at odds with Prime Minister David Cameron’s enthusiasm for renewable energy.

"I am in favour of windfarms and I am in favour of renewable energy but I don’t think it is appropriate to have humongous windfarms very close to people’s houses," she said.

"There are places in Worcestershire where windfarms could go, I wouldn’t want to name places, but I do really believe that there (Lenchwick) is not an appropriate place for a windfarm."

Mrs Lumley has also pledged to support farmers, village shops, local pubs and hold regular surgeries in the Lenches.

"I want people to feel I am their Member of Parliament and not just MP for Redditch," she added.

Karen Lumley says the Lenchwick area is an inappropriate site for a windfarm. Picture by Nick Hands

The Lenches is now part of the Redditch Parliamentary Constituency which is currently represented by Jacqui Smith MP so she came to see for herself the scale and detail of the proposal.

Rod Stroud Chairman of VVASP (Vale Villages against Scottish Power, the Action Group campaigning against the proposals) says "Jacqui Smith MP showed concern for the local residents predicament and we received the following response from her Secretary following the visit";

"Jacqui was impressed with the presentation made by Rod (Stroud) and Erica (Page). Should she become MP for the area she will be happy to take on the developers of the proposed windfarm and ensure the government guidelines and policies are tested and clear in relation to a development such as this.

Her main contention is the enormous size of the individual turbines, the proximity to housing and the ‘marginal’ size of the overall development.

Given its’ marginal scale Jacqui thinks that the developers might be unwilling to force through a development that causes them a lot of pain for only a little gain. She will be happy to build on that pain."

Karen Lumley, the prospective Conservative candidate for Redditch, has also visited the site several times and voiced support for the VVASP campaign.

Peter Luff MP has an active interest in the proposals since it was announced in November 2008 and was responsible for the 10 minute Bill presented to Parliament requesting a 2Km exclusion zone between large industrial wind turbines and resident homes.

This gives VVASP and residents in the local area a huge boost in getting ‘cross party’ support that the site is inappropriate for such large industrial turbines so close to peoples homes.

Rod Stroud – Chairman VVASP

Despite statements by SPR at the SPR organised September sessions that it would be submitted in November, that then slipped to December and then to January, the latest information that we have received is that a Planning Application will be submitted late February.

They have recently been adding in some additional viewpoints for photomontages – including a view from The Lenches Club.

It is also likely to include an application for two alternative access points, one via Badgers Hill and the other via Harvington, Leys Road, The Hand and then across the fields from their.

We apologise that we are unable to give you any more information that this at present, unfortunately that is all that we know, – so much for ‘public consultation’ by SPR!

As soon as we know any more details, we will let you know.

original article here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/planning/6803823/Wind-turbine-noise-warnings-were-dismissed-by-civil-servants.html

Consultants recommended lowering night-time noise limits because the sounds made by spinning blades were enough to disrupt sleep patterns.

However, the advice, contained in a draft version of their 2006 report, was removed from the final submission which was eventually used in official guidance for local authorities ruling on planning applications from wind farm developers.

It means that hundreds of turbines at wind farms in Britain built since 2006 have been allowed to continue generating high levels of noise.

Evidence of the changed advice was uncovered after a two-year battle using the Freedom of Information Act by campaigners opposed to a wind turbine development close to their home at in mid-Devon.

One of those campaigners, Mike Hulme, said: “This proves what we have been saying all along, that the noise guidelines should be reviewed. They haven’t changed substantially since 1997, in which time the design of turbines has changed and the number of wind farms has increased.

“Turbines used to be about 50 feet and now they are closer to 400 feet.

"Residents are afraid to complain to their council because the problem is then in the public domain and it becomes impossible to sell their house."

The noise warnings were made in a draft report by Hayes McKenzie Partnership (HMP).

It was commissioned by the Department for Trade and Industry, since replaced by the Department for Energy and Climate Change, following a 2004 article in The Daily Telegraph that identified wind turbines at a Cornish wind farm as giving rise to health problems associated with low frequency noise emissions.

It said the sound caused by “aerodynamic modulation” – the rhythmic ‘whump whump’ of the blades – was enough to disturb the sleep of nearby residents, creating an "adverse" impact on their health, and recommended the night noise limited be cut from 43 decibels to 38.

However, an anonymous government official then inserted remarks querying the impact of the proposed change. “What will the impact of this be?,” the civil servant wrote. “Are we saying that this is the situation for all wind farms … I think we need a sense of the scale of this and the impact.”

The final report removed any suggestion of cutting the noise limits or adding any further penalty if turbines generated a beating noise — and recommended local authorities to stick to the 1996 guidelines.

Britain has 253 land-based wind farms generating 3.5 gigawatts, but this is expected to double or even triple by 2020 to help to meet targets for cutting CO2 emissions.

A spokesman for the DECC denied officials had put pressure on the consultants to remove the noise warnings.

He added: "Noise impacts are an aspect which is considered within the planning process before any decision is taken whether or not to grant consent to a project."

Thanks to The Daily Telegraph for this report