Council set for wind farm fightback (From Times Series)

Council set for wind farm fightback

11:23am Monday 4th June 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

A Conservative-led council is preparing a fightback against new wind farm developments.

Amid a growing backlash against onshore wind turbines among countryside campaigners, Lincolnshire County Council is to vote this week on new guidance introducing a presumption against allowing any more to be built.

The authority's Tory leader Martin Hill said he did not want the county to be covered by a "forest of the things".

"We have got them in Lincolnshire, we are not saying we are not going to have any more, but we feel we have already got 75 big turbines - we are talking about big things above 130 metres high, the latest ones the sort of size of the London Eye," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We have already got 75, there are several hundred in the pipeline, and really, as representing Lincolnshire, I don't think we want the whole county to be covered by a forest of the things."

The council is to issue a position statement saying that new wind farms should not be built within six miles of villages comprising more than 10 homes.

The county authority does not have control of planning issues, which is handled by the district councils. But Mr Hill said he expected the district councils and other authorities - including the Government - to "take into account" the view of the elected county councillors.

Prime Minister David Cameron is committed to the use of wind as the UK seeks to move to cleaner energy sources.

But Mr Hill said: "I'm quite sceptical about the efficacy of wind farms in particular because once you look at the science behind it I'm afraid it doesn't really stack up."