CEIRIOG VALLEY ACTION GROUP

Residents of the Ceiriog Valley united against proposals to blight one of North Wales’ most beautiful rural landscapes with industrial wind turbines

Release date: Thursday June 27^th 2002

Valley community declares

war on ‘giant turbines’ plan

RESIDENTS of one of North Wales’ most spectacularly beautiful valleys have declared war against the proposers of a wind turbine development who want to erect the biggest turbines in the country on the hills above Glyn Ceiriog.

A public meeting called to formally establish the Ceiriog Valley Action Group and elect its officers drew a packed audience to the Oliver Jones Memorial Hall, Dolywern, last night – and even though the meeting had not been intended as a public debate, Valley people voiced the passionate resolve that wind turbines will have no place in the Ceiriog Valley.

Only 50 or 60 people had been expected to attend the CVAG launch meeting – but around 175 residents from Glyn Ceiriog, Pontfadog, Dolywern, Pandy, Tregeiriog, Llanarmon Duffryn Ceiriog and surrounding villages turned out – in advance of a full-scale public meeting at the same venue next Wednesday (July 3).

They heard newly-elected CVAG Chairman Kyran Lawford tear holes in the application by farmer Gareth Roberts, backed by National Wind Power, to erect a cluster of three giant 300ft (91 metre) turbines at Cefn Coed, Glyn Ceiriog, which, if approved by Wrexham County Borough Council, would open the way to an expected wave of fresh applications for many more giant turbines down the length of the Ceiriog Valley.

Under the cloak of ‘green energy’, legions of giant turbines would destroy the visual character and beauty of the Valley, and the community with it, said Mr Lawford, “and anyone who really cares about the community doesn’t do that” he contended.

To sustained applause he added “If one development of turbines is allowed, there will be clusters everywhere – three here, four there – and each of them as big as a 30-storey office block, or twice the height of Nelson’s Column.”

The proposers of the turbine development he said were exploiting loopholes and finding ways around restrictions which currently apply only to developments of five or more turbines – among them the requirement for a full

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and properly-researched Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), detailing the extent of turbine noise, visual intrusion, damage to wildlife, birdlife and other aspects of local ecology.

An environmental report prepared in support of the Roberts’ proposal by consultants Dulas Engineering was hopelessly inadequate, and contained a great deal of misinformation and confusing jargon, said Mr.Lawford.

He cited as an example Dulas Engineering’s predictions on air dissipation caused by the giant 31-metre rotor blades of the proposed turbines, which illustrated the effects of noise on flat land. “They don’t seem to have grasped that we don’t live on flat land – we live in a Valley, and we believe that the noise of the turbines would resonate around it like a ball in a roulette wheel.”

He also poured scorn on Dulas’ claim that Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) from the turbines might cause ‘a little interference’ to television and radio reception. “Their document says that if there is any, they’ll fix it – but believe me, if you get interference, you’ll have to live with it.”

There was solid support from all corners of the floor, and a crescendo of applause for neighbouring landowner David Pick when he told the meeting: “I own about 70 acres right next to the proposed site of these turbines – but I tell you, there’ll never be wind turbines on my land as long as I’m alive.”

CVAG has the support of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, whose spokesman Geoffrey Sinclair will address next Wednesday’s full-scale public meeting at the Oliver Jones Memorial Hall, Dolywern (7.30pm).

Says Mr.Sinclair in a formal objection to Wrexham County Borough Council against the giant wind turbines proposal at Glyn Ceiriog: “It is important to remember…that this is not a little local initiative by a green-minded farmer attempting to do his bit to set the world to rights, but is the tip of a very considerable iceberg, as the major wind power developer in the UK seeks to find a new way of penetrating the inconvenient planning system, which it has persistently represented to government as being the major obstacle preventing realisation of its highly ambitious wind orientated renewable energy targets.”

CVAG Elected officers were Chairman: Kyran Lawford, Secretary: Chris Futcher, Fund-Raiser/Treasurer: Merle Hunt, Information Officer: John Dexter; Press Officer: David Wilcock; Area co-ordinators: Llanarmon & Tregeiriog: Brian Kirby; Glyn Ceiriog: Gwynne Roberts; Pandy: Phil Spratley; Dolywern: Jools Payne; Llwynmawr: Ann Wilkie ; Pontfadog: Bryn Hughes and John Dexter; Castle Mill/Bronygarth: Lynne O’Connor.

Editors: For further information, please contact CVAG Chairman Kyron Lawford on 01691-718756, Secretary Chris Futcher on 01691-718602, or Press Officer David Wilcock on 01691-718650.