Windfarm protesters who joined forces for a mass meeting have backed an MP’s bid to stop turbines being built close to homes.
Groups fighting against proposed turbine sites across Staffordshire, including at Aston by Stone and Brineton near Church Eaton, attended a meeting at Stone Station Community Centre on Saturday to discuss their battles.
Stone MP Bill Cash and James Cantrill, a representative from Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy’s office, also attended to hear campaigners’ views.
Mr Cash said he planned to introduce a Private Members’ Bill in the House of Commons, which would introduce set minimum distances that turbines could be installed from residential areas.
He is proposing that no single wind turbine should be installed nearer to a house than 15 times the total height of the turbine, and developers must demonstrate that multiturbine sites do not generate intrusive noise harmonics.
And he says that where a developer of a multi-turbine site is unable to demonstrate freedom from noise harmonics the set-back distance must be increased to 18 times the maximum height of the turbine .
Under the proposed rules a single 127m turbine would have to be set back a minimum distance of 1,905m from the nearest house and a multi turbine site would have to be set back 2,286m. Local authorities could also apply greater setback distances in the case of special terrain factors.
Speaking after the meeting Mr Cash said: “It was a very successful meeting with all the Staffordshire wind turbine action groups.
“They all made their representations and there was a view that we have to get the planning laws right.” Tony Lendon, spokesman for Stag (Stop the Turbines Action Group), which is campaigning against the proposed Brineton turbines, said around 40 people attended Saturday’s meeting which was the first time some groups had met one another.
He said that if Mr Cash’s bill got the go-ahead it would greatly benefit Stag’s campaign.
“Bill Cash put his proposal forward and is now hoping to get enough MPs interested,” he said.
“There was a very good turnout from all the local groups on Saturday, who spoke about how far they had got with campaigns and what stages they are at currently.
“A lot of positive information came out of it.” Keith Washington from Stop (Stone and Trent Valley opposed to Severn Trent Water), which is fighting the Aston-by-Stone proposals, said it was “imperative” setback distance regulations were introduced, following reports of health issues near turbine sites in other countries.
He added that Saturday’s meeting gave groups the opportunity to pool their resources to boost their individual campaigns.
