VILLAGERS from South Tawton and area have united to fight an application for a wind turbine in the locality.

South Tawton Wind Turbine Action Group has been set up by residents opposing the construction of a 67 metre high turbine near the village.

But the company behind the scheme says it will be 'of great benefit' to the community.

The turbine, with a hub height of 40 metres and tip height of 67 metres, would generate an estimated 500kw of electricity. A new access track and associated infrastructure are also part of the application.

The application is on land close to the conservation area of South Tawton, and within 500 metres of Dartmoor National Park.

The action group has around 20 core members, with further support from across the community.

Alan Wright from the group said: 'We believe such an intrusive development — it will be visible from as far as Hatherleigh to the north and Thornworthy on the moor to the south — is totally alien to the character and beauty of Dartmoor National Park and the surrounding farmland.

'Wind energy is a particularly inefficient form of electricity generation, dependent as it is on an unreliable and variable source. Its input to the national grid requires it to be backed up by conventional power stations to smooth out this variability.

'It would be uneconomic for developers to erect these turbines without the subsidies available from national Government. Furthermore, developers benefit from the generous feed-in tariffs which are payable for every unit of electricity they generate. For a 500kW turbine, this can amount to over £150,000 per year.

'We pay for these tariffs through our electricity bills so we are effectively paying developers to despoil the very countryside we cherish and which attracts thousands of tourists every year. Don't let them do to Devon what they have done to Cornwall.'

The group has welcomed the announcement that planning guidance in England will be changed to ensure local communities are given more powers to block onshore wind farms, despite greater incentives being offered to accept them.

Mr Wright said: 'Our area, Dartmoor and its fringes, is a prime example of where local concerns should outweigh the need for renewable energy.'

But Nick Leaney, director of Aardvark Environment Matters, said the turbine would be of great benefit to the community, with the 700 megawatts generated each year creating enough electricity to power 400 local homes.

He said: 'The main thing is we need to do is generate renewable energy and diversify energy sources and where we get our electricity from. Projects like this help with that.

'The turbine would be connected to the local distribution network, to help meet current local requirements. This is not a big wind farm development, and not feeding electricity into the national grid, but creating electricity that would benefit people in the area.

'Any new development in a rural area like this will stand out. What it comes down to is whether the impact on the area is deemed to be unacceptable or not. We believe it is not unacceptable. When you have high winds and undesignated landscape like this you have to harness it.

'West Devon needs to be making a positive contribution to renewable energy, and projects like this is how to do it. We think the application meets the criteria of planning, and had gone through a thorough process to get to this point.'