info@vortex.uk.net                www.vortex.uk.net     tel: 07812577370

VORTEX is the action group set up by a group of concerned residents to fight the proposal by NUON RENEWABLES to build a Wind Power Station.  Nuon propose to put 7 x 2MW , 105 metre turbines surrounding Poplar Lane, Bearstone, Market Drayton Shropshire.

 Poplar Lane is a bridle path, set in the beautiful ancient English countryside between the villages of Woore, Knighton and Norton in Hales on the North Shropshire border with Staffordshire and Cheshire.

  The proposed site is highly constrained by the bridle path, footpaths, an oil pipeline and 26 homes within a radius of 1 km. This is a unique area of natural beauty and it is our home. There are three villages, three junior schools, four nursery schools and over 800 homes within 3 km of this ‘site’.

    Whilst VORTEX whole heartedly supports renewable energy and energy conservation, we believe that groups of large commercial turbines cannot be located in populated rural areas, still less in areas of natural beauty.  A year ago, the Vortex Wind Farm Action Group lodged an objection (original objection) to the meteorological mast - because we knew that it would inevitably lead to a wind farm proposal.  We objected to the proposal for the following reasons:-

1. Noise Issues

2. Health Issues

3. Signal Interference

4. Visual Amenity

5. Shadow Flicker and Strobe Effect

6. Property Devaluation

7. Public Health and Safety

8. Environmental Issues

We have now  engaged expert consultants and expert witnesses and we will update our objections as soon as we have sight of the proposed planning application.

We strongly object to the way  the developers and the government hide behind soft, green language and people’s desire to do something to combat global warming, to disguise what they are doing.  

For the government it is an easy option to make them appear to be doing something about carbon emissions and global warming, whilst for the developers it is a very profitable money making business.

VORTEX asks that our human rights to the  peaceful enjoyment

of our homes and family life are protected. We ask that a minimum set back distance from peoples homes  be imposed by the government. For health and safety reasons we highly  recommend that this should be at least 2 km. However, in order to put an end to the current rush of applications for wind farms in totally inappropriate sites, a set back distance of  one kilometre from peoples homes needs to be enacted immediately.

Vortex makes the case for a moratorium, in the UK, on rural planning permission for industrial wind turbines within 2 km of non participating residential dwellings, pending full clinical evaluation and conclusions of the health hazards.  This case has been sent to Alan Johnson, sec. of state for health & Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer.

The  inspector who allowed the developers’ recent appeal in Mid Devon  said in his report that:- ‘as far as targets are concerned,

all that matters is that the turbines are installed,

even if  they produce hardly any electricity at all’