Airfield Farm
Proposal
9 wind turbines located at Airfield Farm in northwest Bedfordshire adjacent to the Airfield Farm Raceway south of the village of Podington.
Key Points
- Installed Capacity is 20.7MW
- Turbines will have a maximum tip height of 125 metres
- The project is expected to produce clean electricity for the equivalent of 10,000 local homes*
- The current recreational use of the site will be maintained
- Trees and terrain will limit the view of the wind farm from nearby villages
- Nuon is working with Energy4All to set up a cooperative in order that local people can take an ownership stake in part of the project
- Nuon has proposed setting a community fund with Nuon contributing £31,000 per annum over the life of the project
*Based on an average household consumption of 4700kWh [BWEA]
Background
Nuon has undertaken extensive research and consultation into the environmental & technical issues at the Airfield Farm site and these have shaped and guided the final design. Public consultations held in May 2005 highlighted a strong level of support for the project, but did raise some issues and concerns. These concerns and comments were used to inform the design of the wind farm and the final design is one that the public have had a positive influence on.
In June 2007 the planning application was refused planning consent by Bedford Borough Council's planning committee who voted 11 to 1 against with 1 abstention. Nuon is very disappointed by the decision and is currently considering these reasons for refusal and possible grounds for an appeal. Thank you very much to all those that wrote in support of the project, we hope that your efforts will not have been in vain.