More concerns raised that proposed Calderdale Wind Farm would destroy vital peatland and cultural legacy of Bronte Country
A Pendle councillor has shared her concerns to the potential developers of a controversial huge wind farm that would stretch for miles across special open moorland.
As we revealed last week, green energy developers Calderdale Wind Farm Ltd want to build the largest onshore wind farm in England on the Walshaw Moor Estate near Hebden Bridge in Calderdale, which would also impact upon land overlooking Trawden and Laneshaw Bridge in Pendle.
The land in question, which includes several Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), is owned by the owner of Colne’s Boundary Mill, Richard Bannister.
Now, Coun. Sarah Cockburn-Price, who represents the Conservatives on Pendle Council’s Boulsworth and Foulridge ward, has written to the developers with her concerns, following a well-attended community meeting in Trawden last week.
The councillor, also chairman of the Pendle Council Climate Emergency Working Group, said she was concerned that the Priority Habitats Inventory map of the Walshaw Moor Estate area showed that most of it is blanket bog, whereas Calderdale’s own map did not.
She said: “I have signed a petition to ban windfarms on protected peatland. The immense discrepancy (between the maps) is important because blanket bog has the highest possible priority protected habitat for its climate-regulating, biodiversity-supporting, water quality and flood risk mitigation properties. Blanket bog is irreplaceable.
“It is formed at a rate of 1mm/year by the death and decay of waterlogged peat-forming plants, meaning that 1m of blanket bog, with all its safely stored and locked up carbon that was taken out of the atmosphere by the living plants through photosynthesis, takes 1,000 years to build up.
“Current peat science is clear that restoration of peatland damage caused by windfarm construction is impossible over the net zero timeframe. The peat has taken thousands of years to form and cannot be replaced faster, meaning catastrophic damage could not be restored at the end of a windfarm’s 25-30-year life.
“Although we now understand that the final proposed locations for the 41 turbines are not yet known, some of these will sit on deep peat and, more importantly the miles of construction and service trackways will slice through it, altering the ecology and drainage forever, for an estimated 25 years energy bonus. Quarter of a century is the blink of an eye in peat terms.”
Residents and ecologists are also concerned over the impact on local birdlife including Red List curlews, lapwing and golden plover.
Other worries include the impact such a huge development would have on the cultural legacy of the “Bronte Country” which touches Pendle’s Wycoller.
Coun. Cockburn-Price added: “Certainly, the landscape brought to life in the books of the Bronte sisters will never be the same again.
“On this side of the Pennines, in Wycoller, we have the ruins of the house that is thought to have inspired Wildfell Hall. This proposed development would trash the sense of place that the Bronte books evoke.
“Additionally, I am concerned that the North Valley of Colne and Laneshaw Bridge, is shown as the potential construction traffic route. The roads in Laneshaw Bridge are wholly unsuitable for this kind of traffic. If infrastructure was brought this way, trucks would come in via Laneshaw Bridge, then east along School Lane to Two Laws Road. There is no doubt this would bring immense disruption to residents.