An Essex Estate Agent and Auctioneer has voiced his support for the proposed windfarm at Middlewick, saying it will not lead to drop in house prices.
Developer RidgeWind is hoping to construct a nine turbine wind farm on the Dengie Peninsula. SIEGE, the group campaigning against the Middlewick Wind Farm, claim if the development is allowed to go ahead then it will lead to a drop in property prices.
But Mike Gray from Dedman Gray Property Consultants – who has over thirty years experience in the Essex property business – says that is just not true.
Mike says “There is actually very little evidence that long term house prices are affected by wind farms. In fact any value drop is associated with the planning/construction phase, and that is commonly attributed to the protests of anti-groups – so actually it is the actions of the protest groups themselves that could lead to any price drop, and not the windfarm itself!”
He adds that a 2007 windfarm study by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) shows that prices recover swiftly if there is a drop, “The study says evidence of any perceived house price fall diminishes rapidly the further from the windfarm, with the survey confirming that from more than one mile there is no significant impact. Their conclusion states ‘there is evidence to suggest that the ‘threat’ of a wind farm may have a more significant impact that the actual presence of one.’ So with the Middlewick windfarm being around 3km from Southminster, in my opinion I really cannot see it having any significant impact on property prices.”
See the RICS report at http://www.rics.org/site/download_feed.aspx?fileID=3524&fileExtension=PDF
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT MIDDLEWICK
- RidgeWind has submitted a planning application for a nine turbine wind farm for 25 years only.
- The site is approximately 3km east of Southminster and 5km north east of Burnham-on-Crouch.
- This application follows several years of robust ecological surveys, site assessments and a public exhibition.
- Middlewick will create enough electricity to power 9620 homes – that’s 38% of all the homes in the Maldon district
- RidgeWind works to maximise the community benefit of its wind farms by contributing funds from their wind farms to Community Benefit Schemes managed by a local committee. The value of the Middlewick fund is likely to be between £36,000— £54,000 per year for the lifetime of the wind farm.
- The planning application was submitted to Maldon District Council in January 2010, a decision is expected by early summer 2010.
- More information at www.ridgewind.com
ABOUT DEDMAN GRAY
- Mike Gray has been responsible for moving over 10,000 people in his career. He has acted for many businesses throughout Essex, and is a specialist on selling and letting both residential and commercial property, also property auctions.
- Dedman Gray Commercial was voted the Most Active Commercial Agent in Essex for 2009 by the Estates Gazette.
- Find out more at www.dedmangray.co.uk
Note that we have been provided the text of this press release for use on our website by RidgeWind, but that We Want a Wind Farm is in no way connected to RidgeWind or Dedman Gray. We support the development of the Middlewick Wind Farm because we need to decarbonise the production of energy.