Green activist throughout Hampshire have lodged a strong protest against a proposal to ban wind farms on County Council-owned land. They say that the council already has powers to decide how it wants to use its land and there are also national planning criteria governing the siting and building of wind installations.
The Council says that the benefits of windfarms do not outweigh the ‘adverse effect’s of their presence in the countryside. It therefore wants to impose a blanket ban. But campaigners that include Friends of he Earth, climate change activist in Winchester and Portsmouth and Transition Towns condemn the ban saying it sends a completely negative message to all landowners throughout the county and is contrary to government energy policy on renewable energy.
They have asked the recommendation to be withdrawn and put forward for debate by the whole council instead of leaving it to the council leader to decide. Spokesman Ray Cobbett from Emsworth, ” We’re baffled as the reasons for putting forward a completely unnecessary ban at a time when investment in clean British energy and jobs have never been more important.”
Documents below are in adobe PDF Format
Council’s Decision Report
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Letter to Hampshire County Council
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Press Release
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