Towards the end of March, Thriplow Parish Council, along
with the Parish Councils of Heydon, Chishill, Chrishall,
Duxford, Fowlmere and Melbourn, received a Request for a
Scoping Opinion from South Cambridgeshire District
Council relating to a proposed Wind Farm at Heydon
Grange. This is NOT a formal Planning Application. Until
and unless the proposal reaches the Planning Application
stage, the Parish Councils and the Councillors
themselves are not allowed to take a view for or against
this proposal. If they do, their views in the actual
consultation on the application will be ignored as being
prejudiced. We can and should however, bring this
proposal to your attention.
There have been two well attended public meetings so far
(both of them with Thriplow Parish Councillors in
attendance). At the first meeting in Heydon, we found
out that the proposal is for up to 11 large turbines, to
be sited on both sides of the road on the hillside
immediately south of the Heydon Grange Golf Course. Up
to 25MW will be generated by this windfarm. The blades
proposed will be the largest of those currently
installed in the UK. The meeting also received a
presentation by an expert in fighting inappropriate
windfarm developments and the general view of the
meeting was against the proposal.
Following this first meeting, an Action Group was set up
to fight this proposal and this group is currently
organising itself. They held a second public meeting in
Chishill, again with the consultant present. The action
group mainly consists of people living in the Chrishall,
Chishill and Heydon parishes, as obviously these people
will be those most affected by the proposal. However, it
is understood that anyone within 10km of a windfarm is
generally affected by it, and that is why our council
has been consulted.
The Action Group will need to generate awareness and
raise some funds to prepare their arguments against the
proposal. They are in the process of setting up a
website [link] and they are already
on Facebook - Group Name Stop Heydon Grange Wind Farm.
We will be helping them to get their message across to
you and to answer any questions you may have by helping
them to organise a public meeting in Thriplow at the
appropriate time. Watch this space and the notice boards
for news of this meeting.
In the meantime, if you need any further information,
please visit the appropriate SCDC website page by
putting "Heydon windfarm" into Google and hitting the
first SCDC link or ask any of your parish councillors
for more information.
