npower renewables intends to re-submit a planning application for a wind farm at Nun Wood, between the villages of Bozeat, Harrold and Lavendon, with a revised site layout.

The changes to the wind farm design follow extensive consultation both before, and during, the original planning application process and the site boundary will remain unchanged, but the number of wind turbines is likely to be reduced from 16 to 12. This is following feedback from planning consultation, including further advice from consultees.

The wind farm proposal straddles three local authority boundaries - Borough Council of Wellingborough, Milton Keynes Council and Bedford Borough Council. An Environmental Statement (ES), which sets out the results of the environmental studies carried out at the site, was submitted with the original planning application. A non-technical summary of this document can be seen by clicking on the link on this page.

The revised wind farm layout means that some environmental studies are being updated, including landscape and visual impact, cultural heritage and archaeological assessments.

Cath Stevenson, Regional Development Manager for npower renewables, said, "npower renewables takes consultation responses seriously to ensure that our wind farms are sensitively designed taking into account local factors. Nun Wood is an excellent site for a wind farm and has the potential to make an important contribution towards regional and national renewable energy targets. The revised proposal would provide enough clean renewable electricity for thousands of homes each year, helping the UK in our challenge to take action on climate change. There is more work to be done on finalising the details of the revised wind farm proposal and this will be completed over the coming months."

In order to make changes to the original proposal, the original planning application has been withdrawn and a new one will be resubmitted once all the relevant environmental work has been completed.

npower renewables will be keeping local residents informed of progress as it happens, and we continue to welcome comments on the proposals as they develop, from all interested parties.

Cath added: "Nun Wood is a good site for a wind farm because it's on a local ridge and we know from monitoring that it is a windy site. There is no need for overhead cabling and the turbines will be a good distance from local homes and villages."

npower renewables anticipates submitting a revised planning application by late summer 2008.

back

top