Darrington Wind Farm

The village in Yorkshire I grew up in, Darrington, is being split over a proposed new wind-farm development. Well, "split" is probably the wrong word, "uninamously enraged" is probably more appropriate, at least to the people I've spoken to.

It doesn't seem that the Bankable Models Which Enable Local Community Wind Farm Ownership guidelines are being followed particularly closely, and that a landowner has done a deal with a developer, with the locals feeling as if they're having a huge development dumped on their doorstep, to provide benefit for others, with little to them.

A local campaign group has been set up - the Pontefract Windfarm Action Group, who have been active in raising awareness of the potential impact the turbines could have. One of the earlier actions was to raise a blimp to the approximate height and location of the highest point of the turbine tip:


I'll keep tracking the progress of both the wind farm and the local campaign, but it was worth looking at a map of the local area:



by the side of the wind-farm, between the nearest houses, is the A1 dual carriageway, and just to the north is Ferrybridge, the coal-fired power station that marks the beginning of "Megawatt Valley", target of the first Climate Camp.

So the proposed turbines are undoubtedly quite big, but will they have the impact on the local environment as claimed by the local action group?