Groups to host forum over giant windfarm

THREE groups have united to host a public forum to explore concerns they have over a giant windfarm proposed for thousands of hectares of West Yorkshire moorland.

The Pennine Heritage Trust in partnership with Hebden Bridge Literary and Scientific Society and Stop Calderdale Windfarm have organised the forum, which will be held next month.

It is in response to Calder Wind Farm Ltd’s proposals for a 65-turbine wind farm on more than 2,300 hectares of land at Walshaw Moor, above Hebden Bridge.

Calder Wind Farm Ltd say the windfarm could be England’s biggest if it progresses – and has submitted a scoping report to Calderdale Council to help identify the significant likely effects of the project, which would need to be fully assessed as part of a future planning application.

The proposals have already seen concerns raised by groups ranging from Campaign for the Protection of Rural England to the estate of the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, who was born in Mytholmroyd.

The forum will be held at the

Birchcliffe Centre, Birchcliffe Road, Hebden Bridge, on Wednesday, May 15, from 7.30pm.

Admission is free and there is no advance booking needed, but people are asked to note seating is limited to 350 and the Birchcliffe Centre has very limited parking, so they are asked to park in Hebden Bridge itself. The forum will feature a number of speakers on the impact the turbines may have.

They include nature and travel writer and broadcaster Horatio Clare, poet and Chair of the Ted Hughes Network, Dr Steve Ely, of the University of Huddersfield, Andy Mather, who is an ecologist from Halifax Scientific Society, Bede Mullen, who is Chair of Slow the Flow, the Calderdale group working to reduce flooding risk, and Carl Lawrence, who is Professor Emeritus in engineering at the University of Leeds.

Subjects include the potential impacts the scheme might have on upland birds, a “green debate” on the effect building a windfarm might have on the moorland peat, flooding risk and the carbon footprint of the construction project.