After at least 3 years and 7 expensive inquiries/meetings, the Seamer and Hilton wind farm has finally been approved. Five turbines 125m high and about 600m from the nearest residence will be built astride a lane that joins the two villages. Stringent conditions on safety, abnormal load delivery and monitoring were made by Stockton and Hambleton councils.Friends of the Earth attended two of the council meetings supporting the application which were packed out with protestors. "SWAG gave a number of reasons to reject the wind farm and did a good job I felt highlighting how big an operation it is to install a wind farm and what is involved. I thought that this and their opinion that it would spoil the view were their only realistic objections - everything else, noise, distracting motorists, impact on wildlife etc were very dubious" Rob Tucker, co-ordinator said. "Friends of the Earth cannot be at every windfarm application meeting and each project should be looked at individually, but the amount of time spent on applications must be speeded up, its no wonder that wind energy companies decide to relocate abroad taking jobs with them when it takes this long to get permission for just 5 turbines!"
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