A DEVELOPER has applied for permission to build a £5 million wind farm in Suffolk, despite more than 600 people already declaring their objections to the development.

John Howard

A DEVELOPER has applied for permission to build a £5 million wind farm in Suffolk, despite more than 600 people already declaring their objections to the development.

Mid Suffolk District Council had already given approved a 70-metre-high wind monitoring mast at Wyverstone, near Stowmarket.

But this has now led to a full application for two 130-metre-high turbines which could provide electricity to more than 3,600 homes.

Stop Wyverstone Wind farm Action Group (SWWAG) is fighting the proposed development in the Potash Lane area - and is now planning to launch a blimp to show how high the turbines would be.

Dr Neil Macey, a Stowmarket GP and SWWAG's chairman, claimed: “This development will have an immense visual impact on the surrounding landscape, if they are allowed to be built.

“Each turbine will be as tall as the London Eye with blades the size of jumbo jet wings. In an attempt to demonstrate how tall the turbines will be, the group is planning to fly a helium filled blimp close to the site.”

The man behind the project is Andy Hilton, managing director of Norfolk-based Wind Power Renewables. He was project manager for the construction of Britain's two largest offshore wind farms to date - Scroby Sands off Yarmouth and Barrow wind farm, off the north west coast.

Ashley Turner, a spokesman for Climate Change Capital, a London merchant bank which is backing Mr Hilton financially, said the farm - which could be operational by 2010 - would cost between £4 and £5 million.

He said: “They are tall structures, certainly, but there is nothing in the landscape or area that we have chosen that will denigrate it.

“The blimp is not a good idea. They are not a true representation. If it is windy the blimp will veer off to one side or the other and will not look quite right.”

The helium filled balloon, measuring six metres long and 2.5 metres in diameter, will be launched during the weekend of Saturday October 4 and Sunday October 5. Campaigners are encouraging people to view the blimp and submit their comments by e-mail to swwag@yahoo.co.uk .