New plans for Lambourn wind turbine

Businessman Matt Partridge has submitted plans for a wind turbine on Lambourn's Baydon Meadow for a third time

CONTROVERSIAL plans for a wind turbine on Lambourn's Baydon Meadow have been modified and submitted for the third time.

Businessman Matt Partridge is pressing ahead with the scheme, despite two previous refusals from planning chiefs.

Permission to place a turbine on Lambourn's Baydon Meadow was first refused in 2003.

Undeterred, Mr Partridge tried again in 2007 but his proposals for the turbine - then set to be 81 metres tall - were again rejected.

A subsequent planning appeal also failed.

West Berkshire planners had to judge whether the need for renewable energy outweighed the threat to local businesses as outlined by local airfield businessman Ralph Jones and Chanelle McCoy, wife of top jump jockey Tony McCoy.

At that time Anthony Stansfeld (Con, Kintbury) described the proposal as a “crime against nature.”

But Tony Vickers (Lib Dem, Northcroft) said: “This turbine would be an icon to the thousands of motorists passing it on their way into West Berkshire.”

The new proposals, submitted to planners by Mr Partridge this week, are for a turbine which, at 35 metres tall at the tip of the blades, would be one third of that previously proposed.

Mr Partridge pointed out that it would be half the height of the Sparsholt Firs mast and less than one-quarter the height of the Membury mast.

He predicted the turbine would generate around 195,000 units of electricity each year - enough to meet the electricity requirements of nearly 60 typical homes.

Mr Partidge said: “The UK is the windiest country in Europe so placing wind turbines in windy areas like Baydon Meadow helps the UK generate more of its electricity using its own resources, reducing imports of expensive foreign fossil fuels.

“That's before considering the significant environmental benefits – wind turbines release no greenhouse gases, no air pollutants and can be removed within days at the end of their 25 year lives, leaving the site as it was before.”

Lambourn Sustainability Forum spokesman Barry Flisher said: “Baydon Meadow is an ideal place to put a small-scale wind turbine.

“It has a good wind resource while the wind turbine would have only a small, local impact since the area is very sparsely populated with woodland blocking many views towards it and the traffic noise from the M4 will completely overwhelm any noise from the wind turbine.”