A CONTROVERSIAL bid for a wind turbine just outside Hatherleigh this week sparked heated discussion during a meeting in the town's Methodist church.

Cornish developer Mi-Grid displayed plans for the 77 metre turbine at Heane Farm at the meeting on Tuesday.

Located 1.2 miles west of Hatherleigh, the site has a south-south-easterly aspect and is on grade 4 agricultural land. There were heated discussions between members of the public and the developers at the meeting, covering a number of topics including the viability of wind turbines and alternative forms of energy.

The developer originally explored four potential energy project proposals for the site. These were for a solar farm covering 25 acres of the site, a wind farm of three turbines, a single medium scale turbine, or a single small scale turbine.

The company ran a community consultation from mid January to the end of February on the potential schemes. The results of the consultation, together with the completion of a detailed feasability assessment led to Mi-Grid deciding that the medium turbine scheme was the most viable option. The turbine would generate 900 kilowatts, and the energy produced would meet the needs of approximately 470 homes and offset 850 tonnes of CO2.

The turbine would be operational for 25 years and decommissioned at the end of this time period. During its lifetime, a community fund would be set up to benefit the people of Hatherleigh.

Jonathan Kearsley is the managing director of Mi-Grid. He said: 'With our experience it is easy to identify the best technology and most productive renewable scheme for a site.

'It is always a balance of impact and efficiency. We need to talk to the community and explain the process that has brought us here, and bring them along in discussions.

'Applications like this are about the future, and looking at how local needs fit into a wider national picture, and how local needs for energy can be met with a variety of renewable energy schemes.

'The countryside is a working environment and it always has been. It is not a place for people to retire to but a place for people to work the land, grow crops and keep livestock.

'This is the future of the countryside. It's about finding the appropriate site, and we think this is a good side that will provide good energy returns.'

Mel Stride, MP for Central Devon, recently argued in the House of Commons that the need for renewable energy should not automatically outweigh environmental and community concerns. He used the Den Brook wind farm between North Tawton and Spreyton as an example of a renewable energy project given the go-ahead that has been objected to by local people.

Mr Stride said: 'I fully support the need to generate more renewable energy, but have never thought onshore wind turbines to be the answer.

'They are a blight on our beautiful countryside and have a knock-on effect on local house prices and businesses that rely on tourism. I supported the Government's decision in December to reduce subsidies for onshore wind farms as one way of deterring them, and now want to see the new planning guidance more rigorously applied so local objectors can be heard.'

Penny Mills, chair of the Campaign to Protect Rural England in the Torridge District, said that schemes of this kind were motivated by money.

'If it wasn't for the obscene amount of subsidies paid by everybody by increases on our energy bills there wouldn't be any turbines. It's forcing more of our community into fuel poverty, making the rich even richer and the poor even poorer,' she said.

'The greed of the few by imposing these industrial machines on all of us divides communities and causes a great deal of distress for a lot of people.

'They are ruining what makes this part of Devon special, and could also ruin our local economy from the consequential impact on tourism, quality of life of local people and the decimation of their prime asset — their house price. 

'How many more can our countryside take before its irrevocably ruined?'

An application has yet to be submitted to West Devon Borough Council for the turbine.