Five large wind turbines measuring 47ft tall could go on farmland near an Eden village as an expanding £20 million luxury holiday park looks set to go off grid.
Representatives for parent company Leisure Resorts Ltd are hoping to win permission for the renewable energy development at the Ullswater Heights and Holiday Home and Lodge Park site at Flusco, Newbiggin.
The site is home to 130 luxury lodges and the council gave permission earlier this year for a further 73. It is just a short distance from the site of separate plans for a solar farm at Pallet Hill extending to 58-acres and tabled by a renewable energy firm with headquarters in Germany.
The latest green scheme includes a row of five “vertical axis” onshore wind turbines — different to the common horizontal three blade model — and 4,200 solar panels spread across fields currently used for sheep grazing and sileage.
The applicants say the change of use of the agricultural land would allow the holiday development to become self sufficient in energy provision and end its reliance on the National Grid.
While the applicants admit the turbines would be “visible to some degree in most directions”, it has said they are categorised as “small turbines” with their height described as being “similar” to that of surrounding trees, so they would blend in.
Views too would be limited, according to the applicants, by the Hanson Blockworks, the park and disused railway.
“Consequently, the overall height of the proposed turbines would not be totally out of keeping with the wider landscape,” the applicants maintain.
The solar panels too would be largely restricted from view by existing hedgerows and additional screening measures, according to documents submitted by the applicants.
The renewable scheme would cut carbon emissions generated at the site by a massive 404,035kg a year, but also require an associated “energy centre” for battery storage, and a 40ft shipping container to act as “plant room” for storage and electrical points.
Previously, Dacre Parish Council has accused the Leisure Resorts Ltd site of “dwarfing” the 90-households in nearby Newbiggin and having “failed” to properly communicate with the parish council or the community over its plans.
The applicants have reminded Eden planners that the site is within an area “designated as suitable for wind energy” and that the idea also supports the Government’s climate change agenda.
Eden Council declared an ecological and climate change emergency back in 2019 and the applicants say that government advice to local councils is that they should look favourably on planning applications which support the transition to a low carbon future and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Furthermore, the applicants have told council planners that “even-small scale projects” provide a valuable contribution to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and “should be approved” if its impacts are acceptable, and that the Eden Local Plan, adopted by the council, also supports “renewable and low carbon schemes”.
Planning agents based in Huddersfield said: “Leisure Resorts Ltd have given great consideration to the practical steps that they can take to make their business more carbon neutral.
“The proposed solar array and vertical axis wind turbines will make a significant contribution to their long-term goals of reducing their carbon footprint.”
The applicants have said the Government plans to reduce emissions by 78 per cent within 13 years and achieving net zero by 2050 but the argument looks set to be whether measures designed to help the environment industrialise it for those living within sight of it.
