Inquiry gives go ahead for Roos Wind Farm in East Riding

yes2wind has welcomed a Planning Inspector’s decision to give planning consent to a nine-turbine wind farm on land at Sunderland Farm, between Roos and Burton Pidsea in South Holderness. The go-ahead for the nine turbines overturns a previous decision by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, which has twice refused planning consent for a wind farm on the site.

Inspector Paul Griffiths decided to allow plans by Renewable Energy Systems (RES) to build the wind farm citing claiming national policy on renewable energy outweighed local concerns on visual impact and cumulative impact.

Each turbine will be up to 126.5m high, and together the cluster of nine turbines will generate enough clean,green electricity each year to power the equivalent of more than 11,000 homes, or 9% of the homes in East Riding.

Annette Deveson, Head of Development, commented, “We worked hard with East Riding of Yorkshire Council over the past three years to ensure that any concerns about the wind farm were addressed and we were frustrated when the Council’s planning committee voted to refuse the plans in July 2009, despite a recommendation from their Planning Officer to consent the wind farm. We had already responded to the Council’s concerns by removing two turbines and re-submitting a new application, giving the Council every opportunity to make a positive decision about the wind farm itself, without having to go through a costly appeal process.

"It is disappointing that we had to appeal against the Council’s refusal, but we were always confident that this was an excellent site for a wind farm, enabling us to harness a great wind resource without having any significant social or environmental impacts. We are pleased to now be in a position to build a wind farm which will help to reduce the region’s dependence on polluting and imported fossil fuels for the generation of electricity. The wind farm will also generate a valuable community fund of £40,000 per year.”

RES has promised to keep the local community fully informed throughout the period leading up to and during construction. Construction is expected to begin in 2012 and will take between 9 and 12 months.

The local community will decide how the community fund is managed and what it is spent on, and RES states that it will begin the consultation process for this in the coming months.

The successful appeal is the sixth to have gone against East Riding Council of Yorkshire, an authority that is widely seen as one of the most anti-wind bodies in the country. It is not known if RES will seek to regain its appeal costs from the council.