By Sarah ChambersA POWER company has said it would “definitely” be submitting a planning application for a wind farm on a former Second World War airfield.

By Sarah Chambers

A POWER company has said it would “definitely” be submitting a planning application for a wind farm on a former Second World War airfield.

The proposal to build six 101m turbines at Parham Airfield, near Framlingham, met with a storm of protest when it was revealed last year and a campaign to oppose the project has been set up.

However, the company behind the proposal, Saxon Windpower, has remained undeterred and confirmed it would be lodging a planning application, hopefully later this year.

Saxon Windpower announced last year that it wanted to carry out an environmental impact assessment of the proposed wind farm site prior to deciding whether to go ahead with a planning application.

It had hoped to be in a position to submit an application to Suffolk Coastal District Council at the end of September or beginning of October, but now believes it will take slightly more time to prepare the necessary paperwork.

Charles Sandham, director of Ipswich-based Your Energy, which owns half of Saxon Windpower, said: “We are putting in an application quite definitely. It's our intention to have it in this year.

“We are still not quite set to go, but we are doing a lot of drafting at the moment of the documents, so it's starting to come together now.

“We are quite seriously putting in an application. There are no big issues. We do have the normal sorts of small issues that we have to address to make sure our application is completely water-tight when we submit it.”

Saxon Windpower is expecting opposition when it goes to planning, but said it had been heartened by polls, such as a Greenpeace survey, that indicated people were largely in favour of wind energy.

n Great Glemham Parish Council will be meeting on Friday and the agenda will include a discussion of procedures regarding the Saxon Windpower application.

sarah.chambers@eadt.co.uk