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North Essex: Woken up by wind farm (From Gazette)
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North Essex: Woken up by wind farm
7:00am Tuesday 14th October 2008
NOISE control officers may be powerless to stop work on a wind farm causing sleepless nights for residents.
People living on the seafront in Clacton and Holland-on-Sea have been woken up in the early hours by thudding, drilling and vibrations.
The noise is being caused by building work at a new wind farm at Gunfleet Sands, 9km off the coast of Clacton.
Tendring Council received 13 complaints, but said it might be powerless to act if the wind farm is too far out to sea, as it may be outside the area it haspowers over.
There are 47 more foundation piles to be hammered into the seabed. which take two days each, so there could be more sleepless nights.
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Your Say YourColchester
ivan burit, jaywick says...
10:52pm Tue 14 Oct 08
its something we will get used to seeing anyway, the next round will be London Array @ 341 turbines...
Cliff, Colchester says...
12:09am Wed 15 Oct 08
Poacher, Clacton says...
9:23am Wed 15 Oct 08
Boris wrote:Totally bullsh1t Boris.
They didn't want the wind farm on land, so it is being built out to sea. The work has to be done while the weather is good. Just put up with it, the faster they go at it, the sooner it will be over. Blame the nimbies for this work becoming necessary.
The windfarm at the sea was going ahead whether the land based 200 foot plus monstrosity was going to be put up or not.
Go learn the facts before you make ill informed and incorrect comments and show your ignorance.
That said I do agree that this offshore scheme should be going ahead and to be blunt, the long term enviromental gains outweighs the short term noise polution.
To the people of Holland on Sea who are complaining.........
..TOUGH!!!
vicar, East Clacton says...
1:08pm Wed 15 Oct 08
Poacher, Clacton says...
1:49pm Wed 15 Oct 08
Its not that I don't have sympathy for people who suffer noise pollution but its not as if in this case its going to go on forever.
As far as I can see from any research these turbines are much more effective out at sea than they are on land.
The only way land based turbines can match up is if they go higher up, hence the ludricious Earls Hall Farm proposal where the turbines would have been taller than Nelson's Column.
For Boris' benefit that is 185 foot tall, these 5 turbines would have been 410 foot tall.
By any stretch of the imagination that is unacceptable especially when we can more easily site these out at sea out of the way of homes.
In many ways we are lucky to have the choice as many other communties won't, Colchester included and how I will laugh when all the NIMBYS there (undoubtedly including Boris) are up in arms when their skyline is about to be permently blighted.
The work at Gunfleet Sands has to be done at certain times, usually when the tides are right. You are looking at 96 days of annoyance compared to 50 years of having these things ruining the countryside.
The choice seems simple to me........buy some ear defenders!!!
Boris, Colchester says...
12:08am Thu 16 Oct 08
I apologise for implying Gunfleet Sands was a replacement for Earls Hall Farm, I should not have said that.
The fact remains though that the work has got to be done, so they might as well get on with it.
Poacher, Clacton says...
9:25am Thu 16 Oct 08
Sounds like NIMBYISM to me!!!
Do you have any comprehension about how tall 410 foot is?
You are talking about something that size wise equates to approximately a 30 storey building. The span of the wings themselves takes up over an acre of sky space! And you are talking about 5 of them that were proposed there.
If you want to live near one that size you are welcome to but I would bet you wouldn't have many neighbours!
Boris, Colchester says...
11:32pm Sat 18 Oct 08
If I chop down the beech tree in my back garden I think I might have room to replace it with a wind turbine, not a 410-footer though as I could not afford it.
Poacher, Clacton says...
10:58pm Sun 19 Oct 08
Boris, Colchester says...
11:35pm Sun 19 Oct 08
A wind turbine would be more interesting. However, I suspect the neighbours would object, so it is likely to end up being solar panels.
Last time I checked, solar panels didn't seem very cost-effective, but I'll check again some time soon.
ivan burit, jaywick says...
10:07am Mon 20 Oct 08
The way i see it, it will only go ahead IF the 400 new home estate is built next to it, as it will get in by being "eco-friendly"
The gunfleet site is the least of your worries if you dont like them,
as our PM `ol georgy boy was met last week by the new money from the Arab`s for funding/part funding? London Array coming to a coast near you oh so soon.
It looks like "only" another 241 now though...
So, what really is the point of Earls Hall with its massive visual footprint.........
your comments please..
Poacher, Clacton says...
10:43am Mon 20 Oct 08
The turbine issue is a dead duck though, it was firmly rejected by TDC councillors. I see some residents haven't lowered their guard as of yet!
The new estate proposed has been mooted about for several years now, in fact since the by-pass which was what 10 years ago?
No firm proposals have ever been put forward for its location but it was always previously alleged to be being built somewhere along the bypass as far up as the Weeley junction and possibly not even on the same side of the road as Earls Hall Farm.
I can't see TDC massively extending Clacton out along that side of town by that sort of size or St Osyth will get swallowed up and become a suburb of the Clacton.
I did actually hear a very strong rumour that the site opposite the out of town Tescos is in line for the new estate.
Your sayYour Colchester
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Boris, Colchester says...
4:34pm Tue 14 Oct 08
Blame the nimbies for this work becoming necessary.