Pendle windfarm plans are withdrawn (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Pendle windfarm plans are withdrawn

6:43pm Monday 11th October 2010 in Reedley By Jon Livesey, Reporter

FLASHBACK: Resident Jack Simpson takes a look at wind farm plans in August

CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after plans to create Pendle’s first commercial windfarm were scrapped by BT.

The communications giant confirmed that plans for three 95-metre wind turbines on land at Moor Isles Farm, in Woodend Road, on the Higham-Reedley border, have been binned, after residents in the surrounding towns and villages objected to the proposals.

The plans formed part of BT’s UK-wide Wind For Change project, which intends to generate 250 mega-watts of renewable energy per year, providing almost a quarter of the company’s electricity needs.

Tom Martin, head of partnership development for BT’s Wind For Change, said: “Ongoing assessments at Reedley highlighted technical challenges which, when considered against the benefits of pursuing a planning application, have led to our decision not to progress the proposals and instead to focus on other sites.

“BT is a responsible renewable energy developer and we remain committed to generating electricity from renewable sources and so we are pursuing other opportunities throughout the UK.”

John David, a borough and parish councillor who lives in Fence, welcomed the news.

He said: “Frankly I think it was an awful scheme and I’m delighted that BT are not going to pursue it.

“It would have been totally inappropriate for that site and I applaud those people who organised the campaign against it.”

Brian Newman, of Wheatley Lane Road, Fence, who was against the scheme from the outset, said: “The news is very good for the area.

“My thoughts were always that BT say they are so environmentally friendly, so they should go an build an off-shore windfarm.

"That way they could put something back into the electricity system.”