It’s going to ruin our community says Fylde residents protesting against wind farm cables

If plans go ahead, power from 96 turbines, more than 20 miles offshore, would land near Squires Gate Lane and travel underground across Fylde to substations at Penwortham and between Freckleton, Kirkham and Newton.

Last week, protesters gathered in St Annes, citing risks including wildlife disruption, destruction of green belt land and dunes, long noisy construction, road closures and negative effects on tourism, recreation, and local businesses.

An intial protest was also held against the proposed wind farm cable route at Warton Aerodrome two weeks prior, with residents there being concerned that the plans will displace birds and risk bird strikes in the airspace of BAE.

Over the weekend a third protest was then held in Freckleton, one of the villages set to be most impacted by the proposed cable.

At the protest, Freckleton resident David Barlow told us it was “first and foremost... about bringing awareness to the communities of the Fylde about the devastation this planning application is about to unleash on us all.

“The Fylde has been purposely left in the dark about it, we have all been caught up in the web of deceit spun by the applicants and their foreign investment backers.

“It affects everyone in the Fylde and if it’s only your house value plummeting then think yourself as one of the lucky ones.”

David then continued: “It’s about around 80 landowners threatened with compulsory purchase orders and farmland, countryside and greenbelt gone forever. It’s about generational dairy farmers like John Fare, Ann Mason, Derek Lunt, Shiela Hall and others put out of business for good.

“It’s about business and tourism devastated. It’s about closures of beaches, kids recreational sports ground closures, old links golf club closure, loss of PRoW and bridleways, closure of the Wrea Green Equestrian Centre for the disabled that’s been going 40 years, it’s about sand dune sea defences being breached.

“It’s about loss of wildlife and habitats, trees and hedges, it’s about highway safety and human rights ignored, it’s about Freckleton, Newton and Kirkham losing the last piece of greenbelt to two substations - 2.4 million square feet in size.

“It’s about a village living in fear of an increased probability of a bird strike bringing down a military jet, a village that has already experienced the worst military aircraft disaster in our countries history, 61 dead including a whole generation of 38 of our primary school children. Freckleton does not deserve the risk of another air disaster.

“It’s about the high pressure Trans-Pennine Ethylene Pipeline risk which they intend to go over. If that pipeline fractures and you survive it, it would release one of the worst carcinogenics known to man.

“So in a nutshell it’s going to ruin your community for generations to come.

“It’s not about the merits of renewable energy it’s about cutting costs to get from A to B to maximise profits or even going ahead with a project that causes this much destruction to get from A to B.

“It’s about their ignorance and a total disregard for our human rights and health and who class you as insignificant.

“It’s simply not right or feasible and we have to stand up and be counted.

“It’s a bad design.”

Furether planning meetings will be held on the proposal on October 7, 8 and 9, at Village Hotel, East Park Drive, Blackpool.