PRESS RELEASE

FROM

FRIENDS OF EDEN, LAKELAND & LUNESDALE SCENERY

“FELLS” ENTERS ITS SECOND DECADE WITH EVEN MORE TO DO

The AGM of the Friends of Eden, Lakeland and Lunesdale Scenery was held last week marking the end of the presidency of Professor Joe Shennan and Chairmanship of Sir Tim Kimber.

Dr Mike Hall, Chairman elect of FELLS gave a presentation about the state of the “Ring of Steel” that wind turbines threaten to build in Cumbria and Lancashire around the Lake District National Park.  75 windfarm sites are being investigated with just a handful so far rejected.  He reported on the opposition groups across the counties that FELLS had assisted, and in particular on the Public Inquiries with which the group have been involved.  As part of a consortium supported by the Friends of the Lake District a comprehensive case against proposals for wind farms at Armistead and Sillfield had been built – it was a great disappointment when the Planning Inspector upheld the appeal, effectively granting permission for six 100 metre turbines to be built in a pristine bit of countryside. 

Dr Hall also advised that the Eden Valley was facing further applications for turbines six times the size of the angel of the north from Ravenstonedale, to Reagill, Lazonby, and Berrier Hill and that new schemes were being announced almost on a monthly basis. 

In his final message, Professor Shennan said:  “When FELLS was established our task was twofold:  to persuade the relevant local authorities that the erection of wind turbines in particular locations would be a betrayal of our national and natural heritage; and to provide accurate information to counter the developers’ propaganda.”  He went on to say that FELLS now have to contend with Public Inquiries in which it is forbidden to question government policy and with threatened changes that could see local democracy removed from the planning process. 

In handing over the Presidency to Sir Tim Kimber Joe Shennan said “As FELLS continues to fight the good fight against misconceived and damaging (but for the developer high lucrative) projects, it is also being drawn into the wider conflict between centralised government and local interest.  In that battle we can do what we have always set out to do, namely to persuade fair- minded people that propaganda is no more than special pleading.   But the shadow of 1984 is getting uncomfortably close” 

Note to editors:

Attached:  Map and table of Cumbria under Siege – wind farm sites across the area

FELLS was established in 2000 after the approval of plans for the Lambrigg wind farm – by today’s standards a cluster or small turbines.