Plans for three Teesside wind turbines which would be the tallest in England and Wales have been approved.
Permission was sought for three single turbines in Hartlepool, at Graythorp Industrial Estate, Brenda Road West Industrial Estate and Tofts Road West.
Originally meant be 200m (655ft) high, they have been reduced to 175m (574ft) following concerns over toppling distance to the nearby railway line.
The scheme was approved by Hartlepool Council’s planning committee yesterday by seven votes to three.
Being developed by renewable energy company Seneca Global Energy Ltd, building of the turbines is expected to take between six and nine months to complete.
A petition with 33 signatures objecting to the Tofts Road West application was handed to the committee prior to approval, raising issues of the turbine’s height, effects on wildlife, particularly with regard to the nearby RSPB Saltholme and Teesmouth Field Centre, effects on aviation and questioning the need for more turbines.
At the time of the report going before the committee, 243 letters of support, 139 letters of objection and 24 letters neither supporting or objecting to the proposed developments had been received.
Objections were also received from Teesmouth Bird Club, who said: “It is completely unacceptable to have an array of these huge turbines in an estuary with numerous areas of designated conservation status. This and the other two applications should be refused.”
Dan Grierson, of The Energy Workshop, acting as agents for Hartlepool-based company Seneca Global Energy Ltd, said: “This is good news because it’s going to be owned and operated locally in Hartlepool. Seneca Global Energy is a local company. It will mean jobs, and each turbine is going to be 3.4 megawatts - that’s enough to generate enough power for more than 6,000 households.
“There are community benefits as well. It will mean £70,000 a year going back into the local community - the council will decide how that’s spent.
“Yes, they will be the tallest in England and Wales at the moment, but others are maybe 120, 130m and on a hill, so they look bigger.”
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