Latest News : February 2010
Appeal Hearing Closes
The appeal hearing ended on 20 January. The Inspector, Mr John Braithwaite was the epitome of courtesy and fairness. He will publish his findings in late February or early March. Before then, he will walk key footpaths and bridlepaths within 2 kilometres of the site and will also visit viewpoints within the National Park.
It’s impossible to guess the outcome. The combined cases of the District Council, the National Park, the Lutyens Trust and Friends of Craven Landscape were very strong but Mr Braithwaite has told us he will work within national policy, which is very rigid.
OCTOBER '09
Friends appoint Queen's Counsel.
We have secured the services of David Manley, a Queen's Counsel who specialises in planning issues. Mr Manley will advise on preparing our case and will represent us at the appeal hearing.
EK ask to have the appeal heard by Secretary of State
In August, EK applied to have the case taken away from the planning inspector and instead, heard by the Secretary of State. We learned of this only when we were notified that the application had been refused. We are pleased to see the normal process being followed.
August '09: District Council and National Park Join Forces to fight EK Appeal
Craven District Council and the Yorkshire Dales National Park will join forces to fight the developer’s appeal. Together, they will fund a barrister, a landscape expert and a planning expert. Friends of Craven Landscape fully support the Council and the National Park and we will ensure that our campaign will fit in with theirs.
July 2009: EnergieKontor launch appeal.
In November last year, the Craven District Council Planning Committee refused EnergieKontor’s application to build five, 100 metre wind turbines in the Gargrave Drumlin Field. EK’s management have not honoured their promise not to continue with the development if local people do not want it. They have now submitted an appeal to the secretary of state.
They made the promise not to appeal during community briefings and they repeated it to our Member of Parliament.
We will fight the appeal with as much vigour as we gave the planning application. We have prepared much of the paperwork needed to fight an appeal and we have access to professional legal advice.
We expect the fight to be tough and it won’t be cheap but if EnergieKontor loses, which we are sure they will, EK could end up playing the Local Authority's costs. EK could end up with a whacking bill and have nothing to show for it.
April 2009: Platform Against Wind Farms (EPAW)
We have signed up to EPAW, which has a membership of 291 organisations from 15 European countries. The organisation shares our support for renewable energy projects that are socially, economically and environmentally acceptable.
For more information, and to see a copy of the letter that EPAW will send to all European Commissioners and MEPs, check out www.epaw.org
February 2009 : Website
Our website was corrupted late last year; we lost our email address and all readers’ comments, both for us and against. This was a great shame as it stifled a very stimulating debate. We are now up and running again; you can find our new email address and leave comments via the forum page.