VILLAGERS have reacted with horror to the possibility of a new wind farm being built near their homes.Mid Suffolk District Council has received an approach from Hertfordshire-based firm Tradelink Solutions, which is interested in putting turbines at Mendlesham airfield, near Stowmarket.

VILLAGERS have reacted with horror to the possibility of a new wind farm being built near their homes.

Mid Suffolk District Council has received an approach from Hertfordshire-based firm Tradelink Solutions, which is interested in putting turbines at Mendlesham airfield, near Stowmarket.

The company believes the area is a good site for a small wind farm which could have eight 80 metre high turbines.

Now Ann Arnold, chairwoman of Wetheringsett-cum-Brockford Parish Council, is contacting every villager to find out their views through a questionnaire sent out to all 250 homes this week.

She is angry that the parish had not to date been consulted about the wind farm plan by the district council and has been contacted by concerned villagers who live near the site.

She said: "People are concerned about the noise, they see their homes devalued, so many people feel they are a noise nuisance. This has come as a shock to the village.''

Colin and Jean Paris, live within a few hundred yards of the proposed farm in their 14th century home in Wetheringsett.

Mr Paris, a general builder, said: "I do not want my property reduced in value or suffer a hum or noise from these turbines turning. These wind farms produce a nominal amount of electricity in relation to the impact they have on our countryside.''

The couple are also concerned that motorists on the A140 will be distracted by the giant wind turbines, and there could be more accidents on the road as people's attention is caught by the wind farm.

The move has been welcomed by the Green district councillor at neighbouring Mendlesham where many people are in favour, believing the site area already scarred by the giant Mendlesham mast is a good place for renewable energy.

Tradelink Solutions, a company formed to serve the developing needs of the deregulated gas and electricity industries, approached the district council earlier in the year to see if it would include the wind farm in its Local Plan.

The Local Plan is the document that forms the planning blueprint for the next decade locally.

Stephen Andrews, Local Plan manager, said the wind farm proposal would go out to consultation to parish councillors, and go before district councillors by the end of next month.

The council said they will take public workshops out to the communities in October and will be contacting parish councils.

Tradelink Solutions have argued that the wind farm plan is at a very early stage, and details of what might happen are still fluid. No applications have been submitted at this stage and the farm plan may never come to fruition as they are currently testing to see if there is even enough wind to make it viable.