THE developer of Oswaldtwistle Moor’s controversial wind farm has applied for planning permission to extend it by a third.

EnergieKontor said it will create dozens of new jobs if it is given permission to build another four 122-metre high turbines, taking the total to 16.

The wind farm, off Haslingden Road, generated enough electricity to power more than 24,400 homes between March last year and February, Energie-Kontor said.

It said four new turbines would generate enough renewable energy to power more than 8,000 more homes, although local councillor Peter Britcliffe, who was vehemently opposed to the original farm being built, said he will ‘campaign vigorously’ against the new plans.

Documents lodged with the council said: “During the course of the last century Oswaldtwistle Moor was effectively abandoned and past settlement and exploitation is now only evident as ruined farmsteads, dry reservoirs, semi-ruinous field walls and overgrown quarries and trackways.

“The proposed development would result in the loss of a small amount of grazing land.

“There will be limited vegetation removal in order to create both the service tracks within the site and to locate the wind turbines.”

The ‘shadow flicker’ effect was also discussed in documents, and the company said the turbines could be temporarily shut down at certain times if the sun passing behind turbines created shadows that ‘flick on and off’ through nearby windows.

Coun Britcliffe said: “We have enough, if not more than enough, and I will campaign vigorously against the wind farm being extended.

“We have some beautiful moorland in Oswaldtwistle which is being desecrated by these wind farms.

I’m sure a lot of people who have suffered interference on their television pictures, and think the countryside is being blighted, will feel very strongly about this.”