Renewable energy and East Bridgford Community IPS article. Click here to view.

E-mail to Newark and Sherwood planning on behalf of the local communities. Click here to view.

Going Green in East Bridgford - Before the Facts Are Read. A letter from a local resident. Click here to view.

Another residents view on the visit to the wind farm. Click here to view.

"Say Yes to tackling climate change" response to letter published in Septembers magazine. Click here to view the response.

A letter asking for substantiation or correction of the statement made in April's public meeting notes. Click here to read the letter.

The company developing the Gunthorpe wind farm organised a visit for a local resident. View his report.

Read the notes resulting from the April public meeting.
Sorry for the delay!

Read the opposition to a Wind Turbine for East Bridgford debate by clicking here.
Please note that this information was presented in April 2011, but has only been recently put forward for publication on the web site. Sorry for the delay!

Dear Residents of East Bridgford,

We are responding to the inaccuracies in the letter published in the Parish Magazine last month entitled ‘Say No to Wind Turbines in the Trent Valley’.  There were six points which we address below:

• Turbines do not have to be built on the top of hills.  If it were true, why is a private company considering building one near to Gunthorpe Lock?   Many people do not regard wind turbines as ‘blots on the landscape’ and prefer them to pylons, mobile phone masts and power stations.

• Modern wind turbines are not loud and intrusive.   Residents living nearest the turbine are highly unlikely to hear it above the natural background noise.

• Wind turbines are not inefficient.  At £86.70 per MWh, they provide the lowest cost electricity for the UK even without subsidy - see January’s Parish Magazine.

• The Trent Valley vistas are not unspoilt.  There are industrial sheds, metal barns, power lines, pylons, masts of all sorts, and Ratcliffe-on-Soar and Staythorpe power stations.

• Our proposed turbine is not huge (50m hub height at most) and does not require enormous amounts of mining and smelting.  Modern wind turbines pay back the carbon footprint involved in their construction and installation in about 6 months but they continue to provide energy for another 20-25 years without using any scarce resources.  Furthermore, they reduce our dependency on unreliable supplies of fossil fuels.

• Wind turbines are not expensive in relation to the amount of power they produce (as explained above).  It is true that they are subsidised by the tax payer.  Having our own turbines means that the community will benefit from the subsidy.

If you want to help us in any way in our efforts to reduce climate change and provide  funding for village projects and groups, please telephone John Chater on 01949 20882.
You can also support us on facebook @ East-Bridgford-Wind-Turbine or visit our website.
www.eastbridgfordwindturbine.org.uk

Alternatively make your voice heard in support by contacting your local MP
Patrick Mercer admin@newarkconservatives.com
29A London road, Newark, Notts. NG24 1TN

East Bridgford Community Energy IPS Ltd.

The Borough Council have told us that we will not need a full environmental impact statement to gain planning permission. This is good news since that would have cost us upwards of £20,000 and a year long observations of bats, migratory birds, great crested newts etc.

Instead, we will be expected to show that the turbine will not have a serious impact visually or on noise levels, or on the local ecology, electromagnetic communications, and aircraft. We may only need ‘desk top studies’. These are reports by consultants that can be done with minimum observations at the site and relying more on existing data bases that, for example, the RSPB already has. This will be much cheaper. If you are qualified or experienced in any of these areas and would like to offer your help, we would be grateful to hear from you.

For those of you who were unable to come to our recent exhibition in the village hall on Sunday 13th February, you can see it on our web site: www.eastbridgfordwindturbine.org.uk under the Questions section - ‘How has the Village been consulted’. As promised at last year’s Annual Parish meeting, there will be a public meeting on Tuesday April 19th at 7.30pm in the WI Hut. It is being held by the Parish Council and will give those that come an opportunity to see and hear both sides of the argument.

East Bridgford Community Energy IPS Ltd
tel. 01949 20882
www.eastbridgfordwindturbine.org.uk

On Sunday 13th Feb., we held an open day exhibition to inform residents about all aspects of the project. It was highly rated by the 80 or more visitors who attended. Of those that filled in a questionnaire at the end, 38 were in favour of the project, five were undecided and six were against. If you would like to see the exhibition on line, then please visit www.eastbridgfordwindturbine.org.uk.

One common concern voiced by opponents was the precedent it would set for wind turbines all along the ridge between our village and Kneeton.

We have talked to the planning department at Rushcliffe Borough Council about this and they insist that each planning application is treated separately and on its own merits. The acceptance of our proposal will not therefore set a precedent for the acceptance of other turbines in our parish.

If developers deem that other sites nearby would be suitable for turbines, they would have to go through the planning process. Larger turbines of the sort that would be commercially attractive require much more stringent conditions to be met than ours will and the presence of our small turbine would neither encourage nor discourage potential developers. Such developments may happen regardless of our efforts but at least we will be gaining something for our own community by having our own turbine.

The next stage is for us to apply for planning permission for the turbine. We will need to show that it will not have significant effects on health, wildlife, aviation, communications, visual impact etc. This may prove expensive especially if we are required to carry out year-long bird, bat and noise surveys. We have estimated that we will need at least £5000 for this stage. So far, we have received over £800 from donations. If you would like to contribute, please make cheques payable to East Bridgford Community Energy IPS Ltd. and send to 8 Haycroft Way, East Bridgford, NG13 8PB. We are an Industrial and Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community and non-profit making. If you would like to help in other ways please contact us on 01949 20882. We have an urgent need for experience in web page design at present and could also do with advice on financial matters.

East Bridgford Community Energy IPS Ltd
tel. 01949 20882
www.eastbridgfordwindturbine.org.uk

We have now analysed the responses to the leaflet we put out before Christmas.

Approximately 800 leaflets were distributed - one for each household for which we had 151 responses.

The three questions were:

1. Are you in favour of a community wind turbine for the village?
2. Would you invest in the project?
3. Would you be willing to donate to the project?

                         No. of        as % of replies        as % of leaflets
                         replies                                    distributed
Total in favour      80                  53                       10
Against                53                  35                       6.6
Undecided            18                  12                       2.3

In summary, only 19% of households that received the leaflet responded. Of these, 12% were undecided, 35% were against and 53% were in favour. Of those in favour, 52.5% would invest or donate to the project. The responses of the survey are open for inspection.

Our application for planning permission for the mast to measure wind speed came before the Planning committee of the Borough Council on 20th Jan. The senior planning officer’s advice was: ‘Taking into account the temporary nature of the development and its limited visual impact on the area, it is considered that the harm identified is outweighed by the wider environmental and economical benefits associated with investigating the potential of the site to generate power from harnessing the wind. It is concluded therefore that very special circumstance exist in this case to warrant setting aside the normal presumption against inappropriate development in the Green Belt’.

Our Borough Councillor, Nigel Lawrence, was responsible for the application coming before the committee. He spoke briefly and concluded that he would prefer the application to be turned down. Three other councillors spoke in favour of the application, a vote was taken and it was passed unanimously bar one vote.

Now that we have planning permission for the mast, we will be re-erecting it (the previous one was sabotaged).

Provided that we gain permission, we will be holding an open exhibition:

11am – 5pm on Sunday 13th Feb. in the Village Hall.

Residents will be able to see what the project involves, why we are doing it and the benefits to the community. There will be plenty of opportunities to have your questions answered and fears dispelled. We do hope you will find time to learn more about what has become a controversial development.

John Chater.
Chair of East Bridgford Community Energy IPS Ltd.
Tel. 01949 20882
www.eastbridgfordwindturbine.org.uk
john@johnchater.plus.com

In October, we erected a temporary 17.5m mast to measure wind speed. We had been advised that planning permission was not necessary but applied for it as soon as we found out that it did. The mast has since been sabotaged, electrical wires severed and one of the anemometers damaged. We are very disappointed that a group has resorted to criminal damage rather than engage in constructive and rational discussion. They have also not identified themselves.

Meanwhile we have been consulting with residents using the leaflet which was distributed to all homes within the village. Many people have yet to return their responses but we would still encourage them to do so. We will be publishing the results in February.

It is clear that many who are undecided would like more information. One misunderstanding that we frequently come across is that wind turbines are inefficient and are only economically cost effective because of heavy subsidies from the tax payer. The reverse is the case according to a major study commissioned by the government and carried out by independent consultants: http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/statistics/projections/71-uk-electricity-generation-costs-update-.pdf.

The report compares the base costs of generating electricity from gas, coal, wind, and nuclear and does not take account of any subsidies, feed-in-tariffs etc. It is therefore the genuine cost to the country of choosing these different forms of electricity generation.

The report finds that wind energy ‘onshore’ (on land rather than out to sea) is one of the cheapest options and that for projects starting in 2013, on shore wind and gas are the cheapest at £ 86.7per MWh. It is just not true that a wind turbine of the kind we are proposing would be inefficient . It would provide a return for investors, money for the community and would also pay back its carbon footprint within a few months. All this whilst at the same time helping us to reduce emissions and make our contribution to combatting climate change.

We are awaiting planning permission for the anemometer mast. If we are successful, we shall be having a public exhibition soon afterwards. More information on our project will be available and members of our group will be available to answer questions.

John Chater.

Chair of East Bridgford Community Energy IPS Ltd.

On October 17th, we reached a turning point in the project with the erection of a mast for measuring wind speed. The site is in the middle of a field between the River Trent and the village and is 0.6km almost due north of the junction of Cherry Holt Lane and Kneeton Road. It is about half a kilometre from any homes so it is highly unlikely that residents would ever hear it, nor would there be any flicker lighting effects since it would be too far north.

We received advice that it would not need planning permission given that the mast is 17.5m high, only 8cm in diameter and will be dismantled within a year; we have since discovered that it does so we have applied retrospectively. Our apologies to the Parish and Borough Councils.

In our search for a site for the turbine, we need to know that there is sufficient wind to make the scheme economically viable. There are two wind speed measuring devices called anemometers at different heights so that predictions can be made about the wind at heights of 30 – 50m. So far, the wind speed data is encouraging and leads us to believe that a turbine would be able to pay back the loan for its purchase within a reasonable length of time, provide the village with funds for social projects and make our own contribution to combating climate change.

The first hurdle for us is to gain planning permission. Without it, we cannot approach banks or investors for capital. Making an application is expensive and although we have done and can do much of the work ourselves through voluntary effort, there are costs such as application fees, printing, consultant fees, public liability insurance etc. None of our group is making any financial gain, in fact we are donating our own money towards the project which is solely for the benefit of the community. If you would like to help us by making a contribution, however small, please contact me

Hockerton village have already installed a 225kW wind turbine which has been running now for 10 months. It has generated enough electricity to supply the needs of the village (over 50 houses). It has also given investors a return of 5 % and is predicted to create a surplus of £11,776 for village projects. The villagers are pleased with the turbine and initial fears about noise and visual impact have been dispelled. We know that some people are worried about noise so we are planning to organise a trip to see and hear the Hockerton turbine. Please contact us if you would like to come. We will also be holding a public meeting early in the new year and will be putting out an information leaflet as well.

John Chater.

Chair of East Bridgford Community Energy IPS Ltd.

Since January, our group (East Bridgford Community Energy IPS Ltd) has been investigating possible sites for a village owned wind turbine.   We strongly believe we should do our bit to prevent global warming whilst providing funding for social projects at the same time.  As previously reported, our efforts to install a hydro station at Gunthorpe Weir came to nought through no fault of our own but such is the determination of our group that we have turned our efforts to a wind turbine instead.

There are many considerations for choosing a site and some of  the most important are:  a willing landowner, high land, minimal effect on local residents in terms of visual and noise impact, avoiding interference with television, radio and mobile phone communications, minimal interference with aircraft and wild life, proximity to the nearest grid connection, acceptable  ground rent, and preferably financial support (i.e. a loan) for the initial phase to obtain planning permission.

One site that fulfilled many of these criteria was a bluff of land overlooking the Trent near Kneeton.   The land owner was willing and we felt that it would have little if any noise or visual impact on the three nearest houses.  We underestimated the strength of feeling from these residents who were particularly concerned about its impact on the countryside and views over the valley.  A suggested alternative site further away from the houses was also rejected and the landowner withdrew his offer.   

The issue of a wind turbine anywhere near  East Bridgford is  very contentious as was clearly demonstrated at the Annual Parish Meeting where I gave a presentation.  Strong views were expressed both for and against  the project but there was not enough time to explore the issues in detail.  When we have more definite proposals, we believe that a public meeting will be necessary, followed by a survey of residents’ opinions.  We were, however, much encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive comments received at our Flower Show stall. .  Meantime, we shall continue to search for a suitable site and this will involve measuring wind speeds using anemometers on an 18m high mast. 

John Chater.

As reported previously, our plans for a hydro station at Gunthorpe Weir cannot proceed because the British Waterways Board have preferred a private company. Although this came as a big disappointment, it has not blunted our determination to make the village ‘greener’ and, at the same time, provide money for community projects within the village and overseas. We are exploring the possibility of building a wind turbine to provide enough electricity to power all the homes in the village. Hence our new name.

Finding a site that has plenty of wind, little or no visual impact for residents, does not interfere with radio and telecommunications and is sufficiently far away from the nearest houses that there is no noise pollution is going to be quite a challenge. Please let us know if you have any suggestions.

There is an increasing number of communities which have built or are building turbines for the benefit of the community. One of the largest is Westmill in Oxfordshire and their five turbines produce enough electricity to power more than 2,500 homes and save thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

The community raised £4.4M through a community share offer which is at present giving a return of 5% on investment (planned to increase to double figures once the bank loan has been paid off). The shares could be bought for anything between £1 and £20,000. Each person has only one share which entitles them to a vote in decisions about the project and the money raised from it (one member one vote). In this way, the community owns the turbines and has full control over them. But this is just one way of funding such a project, another is to seek grants and a bank loan enabling all of the profits to go community developments rather than to member shareholders. A third alternative is to have a mix of bank loans and shares.

Our group is at present seeking funding (£700) to become an Industrial and Provident Society for the benefit of the community. This means that all profits will go to the community and/or member shareholders. Until we are a legal entity, we cannot apply for grants and bank loans.

Members of the group are as follows:
John Chater, David Atkins, Robert Baker, Derek Chick, Peter Foss, Alistair Howie, Keith Maywhort, George Warren.

Do let us know what you think of our ideas.

John Chater
01949 20882

March 2009
Disappointing news for the Hydro project

Our plans to build a hydro generating station at the Gunthorpe weir have come to a halt, perhaps permanently.

We have a promising pre-feasibility study and no serious objections from planners and the Environment Agency. The Co-op Bank are keen to give us a loan for a substantial part of the capital cost so we have jumped many of the hurdles to progress. The British Waterways Board, whose land we would need to lease, told us that provided we could show that our scheme would not damage the weir, river banks or navigation, we stood every chance of getting their agreement. They even started discussing with us how much we would have to pay for the lease.

So it came as a great surprise to be told recently that they had submitted reports on our scheme and that of a competitor private company (wanting to build on the other side of the weir) to their commercial department. Their decision is to favour the private company who, we believe, is looking to build hydro stations on every weir from Nottingham to the Humber.

This puts an end to our project unless the private company fails to get planning permission, licenses etc or they decide not to go ahead because of financial reasons. The weir is a low one and not as economically attractive as many of the others especially if, as we understand, they are not intending to use Archimedes screw turbines. The Waterways Board tell us that the competitor will have to start construction within 2 years otherwise, we will be up for consideration again.

All this is very disappointing especially after two years’ effort and I would like to thank members of our group for their work and involvement : Dave Short, Robert Baker, David Atkins, Derek Chick, Peter Foss, Keith Maywhort and George Warren. We would like to thank the Parish Council for their support of our project by paying for our pre-feasibility study (£1300).

There is still hope that we can resurrect the project in the future but some of us are now looking at the possibility of building a large wind turbine, which would cost about the same as the hydro turbines and generate a similar amount of electricity. We fully appreciate that this will be controversial unless it is sited well away from the village. If anyone would like to offer help please contact me.

John Chater
Chair of Hydro~gen
Tel. (01949) 20882
March 2009

REPORT ARCHIVE
January 2008
New Hope for a Hydro Generating Scheme
 

The Steering Group is therefore pressing ahead with a new feasibility study which we hope will enable the project to proceed and realise our three aims:

• To help combat climate change
• To raise funds for our own community
• To provide funds to help overseas communities worst affected by climate change.

John Chater
Jan 2008