None of the nine turbines at the Middlewick wind farm will be visible from Southminster High Street because the buildings, walls, trees, etc get in the way. Note how small they are from this distance. A blight? Certainly not!
RidgeWind, the developer hoping to construct a nine turbine wind farm on the Dengie Peninsula, has produced a new computer generated image to dispel claims that the project will be visible from Southminster High Street.
SIEGE, the group campaigning against the Middlewick Wind Farm, believes that the turbines will be clearly visible from the village and have produced their own graphic to support this.
The image has been published in the local press and on their website and clearly shows three wind turbines dominating the skyline at the end of the High Street. It is captioned with: ‘Accurate scale illustration of the view of the Turbines from Southminster High St.’
In response, RidgeWind have employed one of the UK’s leading producers of wind farm visualisations to prove the SIEGE illustration is wholly inaccurate. Middlewick Project Manager Nigel Goodhew says: “A photograph was taken from the same perspective on the High Street as the SIEGE one, and using advanced computer technology the actual location and scale of each of the proposed Middlewick turbines in the landscape has been overlaid in red. The nearest turbine is approximately 3.0km away from the viewpoint location. This confirms that the wind farm will not be visible – in any way, shape or form – from this point of Southminster High Street, due to the build of the town and the distance to the wind farm.”
He added: “The Environmental Statement which accompanied the planning application for the Middlewick Wind Farm submitted to Maldon District Council included many visualisations, but not a viewpoint from Southminster High Street – because there is NO view of the site from this location. Sadly, SIEGE’s imagery is an example of misinformation which is portrayed to the local resident, which understandably will give unnecessary concern. We hope that our accurate illustrations will help at least dispel some of these myths. Middlewick is a fantastic opportunity to provide clean, British, green, energy whilst creating local jobs and investment in the Dengie peninsula.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- 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 area
- 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 and a decision is expected by early summer 2010.
- More information at www.ridgewind.com
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. We support the development of the Middlewick Wind Farm because we need to decarbonise the production of energy.