A public meeting was held on Wednesday September 17^th to give information about the proposed siting of a wind farm with 120m high wind turbines on most of the land between the Brampton Valley Way and the old Harrington airstrip, north of Draughton Crossing.  Local residents, who packed the Loder Hall in Maidwell, heard Professor Michael Jefferson, Gary Lunt and Philip Hollobone give their views on various aspects of wind farms.

Michael Jefferson is an energy and environmental advisor, Professor of International Business and Sustainability at the Metropolitan Business School and in more recent years his activities included being the lead consultant and co-ordinator of the Technical Advisory Panel to the G8 Task Force on Renewable Energy.  Currently he is Associate Editor of the journal “Renewable Energy”.  Professor Jefferson spoke elequently of his beliefs that wind turbines have an important part to play in providing renewable energy, but that they should be placed in locations where they will perform most efficiently.  He believes this is offshore or along the coast where wind speeds will provide optimum results, not in locations such as the Harrington airfield.  He said that the implied load factor (proportion of total installed capacity actually used) for the Harrington airfield area is unlikely to exceed 24%.  Load factor has a particular relevance in the development of wind farms. Nuon Renewables (a company based near Penzance, but whose parent company is Dutch) is seeking to develop the proposed site at Draughton.  The Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Nuon between 2002 and April 23, 2008, was Ludo van Halderen, who said early in 2008:

“Wind energy should be developed where it makes sense instead of seeing wind farms receiving substantial subsidies in countries where they run for barely a fifth of the year (a load factor of 23%).”

In other words, the former Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board of a company experienced in wind energy projects – while in office – revealed that the load factors likely to apply in the A14/Market Harborough area do not make sense.

A copy of Professor Jefferson’s presentation will be posted on this site shortly.

Gary Lunt spoke about his voluntary involvement with action groups fighting wind farm planning applications along the A14 corridor east of the M1.  He said that whilst each action group would have their own specific campaign with issues unique to their own location, there would be several common issues relevant to all planning opposals.  A consortium group had therefore been formed, with representatives from each of these individual action groups, to form the Windfarm Action Group for the A14 Consortium (WAGAC) in order to work together in exploring common issues.

Local MP Philip Hollobone expressed cautious opposition to wind farms. He said that his constituents in Burton Latimer were generally supportive and proud of the Burton Wold wind farm but he believed that particular development provided enough turbines for the area.  Whilst he supported wind farms as a source of renewable energy, he agreed with Professor Jefferson’s view that offshore wind farms were more efficient and supported our opposition to the proposed developments on the Harrington airfield. He urged all present to write to the three councillors for our ward and every member of the planning committee at Daventry (once a planning application had been received) to outline why they should not allow this development.

Keith Kilbane of the Stop Swinford Wind Farm Action Group gave a brief outline of their campaign, particularly in regard to the planning process.  He said that once the planning application was received the planning committee had 13 weeks to reach their decision but that they would publish their findings 21 days before the decision was reached and this was the period during which objections could be lodged.  He said that Nuon and Daventry Council had experience of the process, but that we would be involved in a very steep learning curve from a standing start.  He also said that Nuon would employ consultants to prepare their Environmental Assessment and strongly advised the appointment of someone experienced in looking at the huge amount of detail the EA would contain in order to prepare our case against the proposal.

David Carter-Johnson, who chaired, then invited questions from the audience.  A list of questions and answers from the meeting, together with general FAQs (frequently asked questions) will be prepared and posted on the web site.

David thanked the speakers for freely giving their time.  He thanked the local residents for attending and stressed the need for financial contributions in order to successfully campaign against the wind farm development.  The meeting closed at 9:00 pm.