SOUL, The Barmoor Anti Wind Farm Group
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Barmoor Refused!!!!!
Moorsyde refused !!
The Planning meeting to hear all 3 applications to develop wind power stations in North Northumberland was a resounding victory for common sense in the face of strong opposition from Berwick Council’s current planning officers, who had recommended acceptance of the Barmoor and Moorsyde schemes. Almost unanimously, the local councillors present at the meeting voted to throw out all three applications !
A stunning victory for us all !
© the Journal
Those of you who managed to attend the Maltings yesterday may have heard, amongst much other debate, the speakers for the opposition, who were outstanding in their deliveries of concise and heartfelt reasons to refuse the applications.
Soul had drawn up a full critique of the planning officers report made available last week, drawing attention to more than 50 points, and these were given to councillors and officers to study prior to the meeting.
Many thanks to all of you who attended the Maltings to support us and also to those who came us in spirit, if not in person. Perhaps now we can all have a bit of a breather until the next step – the developers appeal and we move on to a public enquiry. We will have to look to you for even more support at that stage as the costs will be very considerable.
But for now, let’s all enjoy the victory. It is great to feel that all the hard work done by your committee has been worth the effort, but it would not have been possible without the help that you provide, whether it be letters to the papers, attending fund raising events, donations, coming along to meetings, or just spreading the word.
See Journal report " 3 Strikes and a clear knockout" on our news page.
"Wind Bad for Planet" The Journal
for more on safety see below. Articles in Sunday Times, Financial Times, Daily Mail, The Journal and now the Telegraph on wind farm subsidies ! 
Brown declares solar better than wind
Berwick Councillors' visited Barmoor, Moorsyde and Toft Hill, late December, so we flew these blimps.
A Group of SOUL supporters below the Blimp at Barmoor
It was the day the planning committee had site visits to Barmoor, Moorsyde and Toft Hill, all of which are due to be decided sometime in the New Year. We had a clear sunny day and unusually, the blimps were often able to fly at their full height because of it being relatively calm with little wind. (Often the wind will pull the blimps down to nearly half the full height) To see an accurate photomontage of a turbine scaled to the anemometer mast at Barmoor in situ see visual impact.
Unsurprisingly, several people found it hard to believe they were being flown at the correct height, which we can absolutely guarantee for all three ! (At Barmoor we had to fly it on land very slightly higher (5m), but the maximum actual height of the balloon above ground level was spot on, as it always is.
"The visual issue" makes some very valid points as to why Councillors and the public are confused by visualisations in e.g. developers’ environmental statements and the real scale of, for example, our blimps.
Standing at the Barmoor site and seeing the effect of both ours and Moorsyde’s balloons as well as Crystal Rigg in the distance was salutary. Do come and see for yourself this Saturday, 15th December
Please either drop it in/send it to the council offices planning dept OR the easiest and quickest is to email it to the council.
See email addresses on next page, How to object
To read more about new proposal see further below.
Lowick PC met 28th Nov to discuss new proposals, which were unanimously rejected
Chairman of Northumberland Tourism speaks out against inappropriate wind turbine developments, saying we need to "avoid destroying beautiful vistas in Northumberland". See news page
Alan Beith MP speaks in parliament about the pressure of too many wind farm applications in Northumberland. 
Turbines 360 feet high would be built right across this picture. (the revised plan leaves all 6 turbines on this side of the road.)They would be more than twice as high as the anemometer mast which
has been enhanced, so can now be seen clearly.
Can you imagine how this landscape would change with a series of turbines stretching across it?
Like this perhaps...?
Save Our Unspoilt Landscape, the Barmoor anti-wind farm action group. more pics ->
OUR AIM
- Our main aim is to produce a reasoned and co-ordinated respose to the imminent planning application for wind turbines to be built at Barmoor;
- we aim to help other individuals to object to the plans;
- aim to engage public opinion
- and to liaise with other groups in the area
Barmoor
The area the enormous turbines are proposed is open rolling agricultural land with magnificent views all round and totally unsuitable for this kind of development - a wind power station is not in any way shape or form, appropriate here, near Barmoor South Moor, Brackenside and Barmoor Ridge.
The
map below shows the proposed positions of the turbines at Barmoor
Proposed development near Barmoor South Moor, (revised)
©CrownCopyright 2005 Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland
Rare and vulnerable features such as Ford Moss, a nature reserve,
Special Area of Conservation and SSSI of international importance; the
beautiful Routin Linn waterfall with the nearby prehistoric cup and ring marks and iron age fort ; Goatscrag Hill with a very rare example of rock art , probably from the mesolithic era and also ancient deer carvings are very close by, as can be seen from the map.
Deer Carving at Goatscrag ; here you can step back into the history of our ancient past for a moment - with the throbbing noise of wind turbines for added atmosphere..?
There is a wealth of other archaeological sites and finds near the Barmoor proposal: 
Please read our latest Archaeological report along with the map below :
© Crown Copyright 2005. Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
Other things you can do to help:
Barmoor
and Toft Hill are particularly significant areas of archaeological
importance, which would be severely threatened by a wind turbine
development. (See
e.g. Goatscrag carvings, Routin linn, and our new archaeological report
below). Please try and visit the archaeological offices at County Hall
in Morpeth, see the data and let them know your concern. Alternatively,
study our report and map then telephone or write to "The Conservation Team,
Environment Directorate, Northumberland County Council, County Hall,
Morpeth, Northumberland, NE61 2EF" or Tel: 01670 534 060 (Fax: 01670 533086)
See also Northumbria's "Keys to the past" website of archaeological features in the area.
Architectural and historical features
© Crown Copyright 2005. Image
produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind
permission of Ordnance Survey and
Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
Map showing scheduled ancient monuments, O, sites O, and listed buildings (blue triangles)
The wealth of scheduled ancient monuments and listed buildings in the area is very considerable, including battle sites, and some are both extremely close to the site and important to our heritage, for example, Ford chimney and the nearby winding house which is only 50 metres from one of the remaining 6 turbines. Barmoor castle is a Grade2* listed buliding, which will also be affected from the point of view of the visual impact of visitors to the sites. Please write to English Heritage stating your concerns about this development at Martin Roberts, English Heritage, North East Region, Bessie Surtees House, 41 - 44 Sandhill, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3JF or Tel: 0191 261 1585 or email English Heritage
Other Wind Power Station Developments in the area pending Planning Decisions
The cumulative impact of the proposed developments at Moorsyde and Toft Hill (see also those at Middlemoor and Wandylaw will be devastating to the outstanding beauty of North Northumberland
and the result will be felt throughout the area in terms of decrease in
tourism and the revenue it brings to the region. (See maps below )
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland
What is more, planning permission for many more wind farms will be in the pipeline if we do not make a stand against this visual pollution. We have a duty to protect our heritage. It is vitally important that horizons from strategic sites, such as our coastline of outstanding natural beauty, the Cheviot hills, Cuthbert's way etc. are not compromised.
(See Robin Dower's article for the Northumberland and Newcastle Society)
A Wind Energy Landscape ?
There are now five proposals for a total of 46 massive wind turbines within the Borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed, with another 18 just over the borough border at Middlemoor. Other sites are being investigated.
© Crown Copyright 2005. Map by kind
courtesy of Don Brownlow reproduced under OS mapping licence WL8747
See the new Windbyte website for images for maps of wider area including Scotland
and the Borders.
Part of 'Moorsyde' Wind Power Station,Looking South from the Plough Inn, West Allerdean.
© 2005 Don Brownlow Photography.
For more information and comment see the MAG website
Turbine scaled to Berwick Town Hall. © Don Brownlow
Berwick Town Hall is 150 ft. high (46 metres).
The 10 turbines would be 360 ft. high (110 metres).
Click
here to protest against the government's planning white paper designed
to push through planning applications with objectors having very little
say.
Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs)
See also article in Newcastle Journal on our News page
These certificates – ROCs – can be bought and sold on the open market. They are tradeable. And the power station owning energy producers can mitigate the penalties for their huge carbon outputs by acquiring ROCs.
So ROCs are enormously valuable. If you can get permission to build 9 giant wind turbines at Barmoor, you can sell the ROCs these attract to power companies at a huge profit. Perhaps it might not be too unkind to imagine that this could possibly play some part in the headlong ‘windrush’ to ruin our countryside with so many outsize, ineffective monuments
How much income can a wind farm produce?
Simple Example of , say a 10 turbine wind farm (each turbine 2.5MW), using these figures, (assuming 30% capacity factor*) ,gives sales of :
1
.Electricity 10 x 2.5 x 24 x 365 x 0.3 =65700 MWh @
£30 = £1,971,000 (No of turbines x
MWs x 24hrs x365 days x “capacity factor” = Units generated in year x wholesale price= sales of energy)
PLUS:
2. ROC's 65700 ROC's @£47.51 = £3,121,407
TOTAL SALES £5,092,497
Other financial
advantages such as that from the Climate Change Levy exemption can
be added, further increasing this sum. *Capacity factor of 30% is used by Government
for predicting performance. (This is seldom achieved except in windy
sites in Highlands. (See Renewable Energy Foundation research)
New car sticker available now! Click here
Barmoor revised proposalTo help interpret the new proposal, here is a version with the positions of the turbines and the roads highlighted and some of the important features marked.
The
wind farm applications for Barmoor, Toft Hill and Moorsyde are likely
to be considered at a planning meeting in late January, say Berwick Council.
Berwick
Council’s latest estimate for hearing the wind farm applications for
Barmoor, Toft Hill and Moorsyde is that they are likely to be
considered at a single planning meeting in late January or early Feb, despite rumours to the contrary.
The
Barmoor developers, Force 9, have reduced the number of turbines in the
planning application
to 6 prior to this, removing turbines 7, 8 and 9, (ie the most
northerly, on the RHS of the road going towards Ford from Barmoor) in
line with the Scott Wilson Report (See Below).
While
this would be a slight improvement on the original proposal it is still
a preposterous suggestion, so as soon as the revised application
appears, we will be contesting it strongly.
There are many very sound reasons to object, for instance, the threat to the area’s particular biodiversity – see special sites on our Barmoor ecology site. If you would like to offer
support against the revised proposals in the form of further
letters/emails to the,council, however brief, please do so. (see how to object)
Wandylaw proposal resoundingly rejected at planning meeting by courageous Berwick Councillors See Journal Report on news pageThe Wandylaw windfarm application for ten 410 ft high turbines was considered by the Planning Committee on Tuesday, 23 October at a meeting lasting more than 3 hours, and was resoundingly rejected by 8 votes to 2. (2 councillors were absent) The meeting lasted more than 3 hours and was made after hearing submissions from both sides, as well as Karen Ledger, the new Berwick planning officer, and Rod Hepplewhite, the consultant in charge of the Scott Wilson reports which have been commissioned by Berwick Council to analyse wind developer's proposals in the area.
The report commissioned by the council had recommended acceptance of the scheme. (To read a copy click here)
GONE (Govt Office North East) had indicated they were looking at the possibility of "calling in" the application so councillors had the option of deferring the decision or "be minded to" accept or reject the development. The MOD made an objection to the scheme on grounds of national security at the last minute and this will also now be investigated further. Ridgewind have now appealed against the decision so it will go to public enquiry.
Public Meeting on Arup Report at Berwick Rugby Club
Public
meeting at which the NEA and Arup presented the findings of the Arup
"landscape capacity study" for the "South and West of Berwick area". Read news page
We
were delighted to see the councillors come to that meeting, despite the
Boro Council arranging another meeting the same night!
What became apparent from the meeting was that :
their brief was to survey the areas where there were live applications;
Several serious errors and omissions were made in terms of :
Ignoring all listed buildings and scheduled monuments, unlike other Arup surveys, "because the data was not easily available", and
- Omitting certain settlements completely and ignoring those of less than 10 dwellings
Our main concern is that the study is meant to be an objective survey where judgements are made on an equal basis, yet clearly, different standards have been used for other sites, so its value is rather limited.
Nov 22nd, Just published - the Arup report on the Berwick meeting which mentions, amongst other remarks, points 2 above, but not the omission of significant cultural heritage features (1)
To read more on what the Arup report says, see
As you may know, Scott Wilson broadly agreed with the Arup findings, but refined the recommendations to a reduced Moorsyde scheme of 7 turbines, and a reduced Barmoor scheme of 6 turbines.
Scott Wilson (consultants) report on Barmoor :
Click here for Wilson cumulative impact addendum to Moorsyde and Toft Hill reports
Ove Arup "Wind Farm development & Landscape Capacity Study of South and West of Berwick" released.
It indicates that “the area is not capable of accommodating a level of wind turbine development as envisaged by the Draft RSS and the County Structure Plan, i.e. up to 25 turbines, without a significant change in landscape character and some very significant effects upon the even spread of settlement throughout the area. It suggests a maximum level of development of 10-15 turbines or around 30-40MW installed capacity output.
One of the key statements made is : "The area is a settled landscape, albeit quite sparse in areas, with areas of settlement located outside the study area as well, eg. Berwick upon Tweed. This can be quantified by reference to the visual effects data for two other wind resource areas within Northumberland. For example:-
• The best performing zone in this wind resource area for “effects on settlement up to 2km” potentially affects the same number of dwellings as the 22nd best performer out of 24 in Knowesgate and Harwood or the 11th best out of 16 at North Charlton.
• The best performing zone for “effects on settlement up to 10km” still potentially affects a third more dwellings than the worst performer in Knowesgate and Harwood.
Taking the above into consideration it is necessary to carefully consider the appropriate scale of development in terms of the scenarios." (p34 NERA Wind Farm Development and Landscape Capacity Studies: South and West Berwick upon Tweed)
It goes on to say the maximum recommended magnitude of wind farm development within the area could be distributed in at least 3 different ways (scenarios B, C or D). Smaller “clusters” are favoured which would allow short and long distance views through turbines and would better sit with the scale of the settled landscape.
Scenario B is basically smaller Barmoor and Moorsyde developments , C is smaller Moorsyde and Toft Hill, and D is smaller Barmoor and Toft Hill. (Scenario A was considered unacceptable with scenario C performing slightly better than B & D.)
B
C 
D
We welcome the reduced numbers of turbines as suggested by Arup. It may mean the developments would not be financially viable. Of course, were the planning committee to refuse the present application and the developers then resubmit a smaller development as indicated in the scenarios, there would still be many sound reasons to object, for instance, the threat to the area’s particular biodiversity – see special sites on our Barmoor ecology site.
Moorsyde’s developers have already reduced the number of turbines and revised their application. They also urge you email or write to the Council : see Moorsyde
Why Whinash was won
The DTi’s decision in March last year to reject the planning application for the Whinash windfarm in Cumbria was a huge boost to our campaign against wind turbine development at Barmoor.
Whinash would have involved building 27 turbines 115m high near Tebay on the edge of the Lake District, and it was rejected by the Planning Inspectorate on the grounds that:
• it would be contrary to national and local government landscape protection policie
• that the harm to this particular landscape outweighs the benefits of securing renewable energy at Whinash
• it would cause very significant damage to an important landscape with related impacts on the recreational value of the site
• the proposal would not be a ‘benefit to the neighbourhood’ and therefore it would not be appropriate for consent to be given
Report to the Secretaries of State for Trade and Industry; and for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs. Summary Conclusions. 3 February 2006.
These are all key grounds on which we object to the wind power station proposed at Barmoor.
Perhaps this is also why the Cumbrian Tourist Board strongly objected to the Whinash proposal. The CTB has estimated that the county could lose £75 million each year in tourism if windfarms are built in or around the Lakes.
As agriculture continues to decline as the basis for economic life in the British countryside, tourism is becoming more and more important to the rural economy, and a growing number of people and organisations are awakening to the threat that giant wind turbines pose to rural businesses utterly dependent on a highly sensitive tourist trade.
Visit Britain concludes an article about wind farm development and tourism in one of its strategy publications with the following: “In the coming years it will be ever more important to ensure wind farm development recognises the vital importance of tourism in rural areas, and that the two sectors cannot be guaranteed to co-exist successfully in the same area, especially where an area’s innate attractiveness is a key motivator for tourists to come and visit.”
In a recent report entitled UK Energy Policy: The Small Business Perspective & The Impact on the Rural Economy, the Small Business Council states that, “the current trend towards high levels of wind energy development onshore presents an unacceptable threat to rural businesses and runs counter to almost all other aspects of Government policy relating to the rural economy”.I
n Northumberland agriculture accounts for just 2% of employment. In Berwick on Tweed alone, tourism accounts for 36% of the local economy. Yet Northumberland still claims just 1% of the total UK tourist economy. The scope for expanding this share is enormous, and it is estimated that every additional £1 million of tourist spending in Northumberland would create another 500 jobs.
According to the Council for the Protection of Rural England, Northumberland is England’s most beautiful and tranquil county, and growing numbers of visitors are coming here for our unique mixture of coastline, castle and countryside. We need to safeguard this economic lifeline.
The Whinash windfarm was rejected because it could cause ‘very significant damage’ to the environment and tourism, and because it offered no benefit to the ‘neighbourhood’.
The Barmoor wind power station planning application should be rejected on exactly the same grounds.
For more details or To Sign his Petition click here
For SOUL Blimp news click the pic :
Long may Northumberland remain "The Land Of Far Horizons"