ANOTHER wind turbine is being planned for the A14 corridor – this time a single turbine on the edge of Hemingford Grey.

ANOTHER wind turbine is being planned for the A14 corridor – this time a single turbine on the edge of Hemingford Grey.

Last year The Hunts Post reported that 30 turbines were in the planning process for installation within a 15-mile stretch of west Huntingdonshire.

Of those 30, 14 have been approved, five applications are pending, nine are the subject of appeals, one was refused planning permission and the other is currently open for public consultation.

But still they come. As reported previously, an application has been made to site a turbine at the landfill site in Buckden and another application has been submitted to Huntingdonshire District Council for a 77-metre-high (253 feet) wind turbine at the Galley Hill Farm site where Amber Real Estate Investments (AREI) already has permission to build an intensive poultry farm.

Some villagers believe the Galley Hill Farm, London Road, application could be a danger to traffic on the A14 (the site is in the parish of Hemingford Grey but located next to the St Ives eastbound exit off the A14) and that residents were not properly consulted.

Hemingford Grey Parish Council has recommended that the plan is approved when it is considered by Huntingdonshire District Council.

Esther Harrod, 59, of Weir Road, Hemingford Grey, said: “Hemingford Grey Parish Council’s consultation on erecting a 253-foot wind turbine in our village amounted to a notice on two parish council boards.

“We’ve been out in the village talking to people and nobody knew anything about it. I e-mailed the chairman of the parish council three weeks ago asking for a parish meeting to discuss this, but he said that the democratic process had been undertaken and nobody had made any comments against it.”

Reverend Philip Foster, who lives in Hemingford Abbots, claimed the site was “totally unsuitable” and posed a safety hazard to both people and wildlife.

“This turbine is only 100 metres from the A14 which is dangerous in itself,” he said. “[In the winter] when the ice flies off the turbines it will be propelled on to the A14.”

Brian Wallis, chairman of Hemingford Grey Parish Council, said councillors were there to represent the views of all the people in the village – as well as one “vocal group”.

“We dealt with the turbine application in the normal way,” he said. “We had a meeting and a number of people attended but left after the first item on the agenda, which wasn’t the turbine. I concluded therefore that there were no objections.

“The deadline for submission to HDC is November 3 and we have a meeting before then where the turbine will be discussed.”

AREI has also applied for 18 over-ground storage tanks to house liquid propane gas (LPG) in order to supplement the energy supplied by the turbine.