St Paul's scraps plan for wind farm
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Your support makes all the difference.St Paul's Cathedral has pulled out of a project to create England's largest onshore wind farm after protests from local residents.
St Paul's Cathedral has pulled out of a project to create England's largest onshore wind farm after protests from local residents.
The dean of the cathedral was initially in favour of a plan to build the wind farm, comprising 26 turbines, on 1,000 acres it owns on the north Essex coast when it was approached by NPower Renewables last year. St Paul's has owned the land since AD604 when it was gifted to by it the king of Kent. Church figures agreed to enter the consultation but pulled out after sending a delegation to the site of the proposed farm around the villages of Bradwell-on-Sea and Tillingham.
Residents from about 850 village homes and farms were opposed to the plans which they said would destroy the coastal marshes, threaten migrating wildfowl and waders and cause noise pollution, mainly from the "blade thump" of the turbines. Church groups were also concerned that the noise from the proposed 400ft-high turbines would destroy the tranquility of St Peter- on-the-Wall, built AD654 by St Cedd of Lindisfarne. It is the oldest complete Saxon church in the world.
A spokeswoman for St Paul's said: "The needs and opinions of residents are the main concern of dean and chapter, and accordingly they have withdrawn from the consultation process."
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