North Cumbrian wind farms plans going on show

Thursday 07 May 2009

Public exhibitions of plans for three new potential wind farm sites in the Carlisle district are set to take place next week.

Banks Developments is beginning a public consultation on plans for the Stone Chest, Black Knors and Mossgrove sites with two public exhibitions, which will be held between 3pm and 7pm on Tuesday 12 May at Hethersgill Village Hall and between the same times on Wednesday 13 May at Nicholforest Village Hall.

Two of the proposed sites are in areas of commercial forestry on the south side of Kershope Forest, to the north east of Carlisle, and to the east of Longtown, with the final site being located on agricultural land.

If approved, the three schemes could provide a combined total of up to 120MW generating capacity of ‘green’ energy.

A total of up to 40 turbines could be installed across the three sites - up to ten turbines could be located at the Mossgrove and Stone Chest sites, and up to 20 could be situated at Black Knors. The height of the proposed turbines could be up to 125m to tip.

Banks Developments will undertake a full public consultation exercise around the proposals over the coming months, and local people will have their first chance to find out more details about and provide feedback on the initial outline of the schemes at the forthcoming exhibitions.

Phil Dyke, managing director of Banks Renewables, says: “These exhibitions are designed to inform local residents and community leaders about our plans at the earliest possible opportunity, and to gather feedback from them which will be used to help shape the final proposals should we decide to submit planning applications.

“The area in which we’re proposing to site these schemes has been identified as having the most appropriate landscape in the area for such developments, and we are confident that we will be able to create schemes which are both acceptable to local people and which provide significant amounts of renewable energy for use in thousands of local homes.”

For further information about Banks’ wind farm plans, please contact community engagement coordinator Emily Hooson on 01740 658500 or e-mail emily.hooson@banksdevelopments.com

Last updated: Thursday 07 May 2009, 13:16 PM