Planning chief says council should call time on Scottish Power's bid for 9 turbines

FENLAND planners are set to reject a bid by Scottish Power to build nine wind turbines on the outskirts of March. The district council planning committee will hear from Rebecca Yee, the head of development services, that the proposals would unbalance and

FENLAND planners are set to reject a bid by Scottish Power to build nine wind turbines on the outskirts of March.

The district council planning committee will hear from Rebecca Yee, the head of development services, that the proposals would unbalance and overpower the landscape.

Her hard hitting comments are contained in a report to next week's meeting in which she says the turbines "will have a significant and cumulative impact and that the proposals should be resisted on these grounds."

Ms Yee said the turbines would have a direct affect on a number of home owners in the area and would result in a material change "thereby unbalancing and overpowering the existing key characteristics of the landscape."

Her conclusions come two years after Scottish Power began work on the proposed wind turbine application for the site north of Floods Ferry Farm.

If the planning committee goes along with her recommendation, the news will be welcomed in March and Whittlesey whose town councils both lodged objections.

But although Doddington Parish Council also objected on grounds of impact and justification for more wind turbines, next door Benwick Parish Council supported the application.

The committee will also be told that whilst 13 letters of objection to the turbines were received, there were 16 letters of support backing farm diversification and renewable energy.

Ms Yee is relying on a recently released policy approved by Fenland Council and she says the application would contravene some aspects of that document.

She says Fenland fully supports renewable energy and has more than met the targets set for it by the East of England Regional Authority.