Planning Updates

Application back on track - 14 January 2011

Last year, English Heritage responded to the Council’s consultation request and determined that they had no concerns about our proposed wind park. Therefore the Council are willing to re-determine this application.

We hope that this will take place in February and after four years of effort and hard work, we will have a consent on the site so that we can start to build South Norfolk’s very first modern windmills.

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Waiting on a repsonse from English Heritage - 28 September 2010

Shortly after the planning application was referred back to South Norfolk Council by the Court of Appeal, a consultation request was sent out the English Heritage to see what their comments on the application were. So far no response has been forthcoming from English Heritage.

If the response from English Heritage is received soon, the Council hope to take this application back to Planning Committee to be determined again.

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Planning decision quoshed - 23 July 2010

It has been two years almost to the day when South Norfolk Council’s Planning Committee voted to approve this planning application. That was on the 18th July 2008 and now on the 19th July 2010 frustratingly that planning has been quashed by the Court of Appeal.

What makes it more frustrating is the permission was not quashed because the site is not suitable for wind turbines, but because the Council did not consult English Heritage for their opinion on the application.

So the application has passed back to South Norfolk Council to be determined again and as the application is the same as before we hope that the Council come to the same conclusion as they did 2 years and approve the planning application. We will keep you posted on the progress and outcome. Let’s hope it does not take another two years to get these wind turbines built and operational. They will still be the only ones operating in the whole of South Norfolk.

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Approval being challenged at the Court of Appeal - 09 March 2010

Our celebrations at having the planning approval upheld by Justice Cranston in the judicial review have now passed. The local group opposed to the already approved development has chosen to spend more time and money taking it to yet another stage and the ruling is now being challenged in the Court of Appeal.

The case will be seen by three Court of Appeal Judges in July 2010. Obviously we’re hopeful that the same outcome will occur, but by this time it will be two long, wasted years since South Norfolk Council first formally approved the decision. We simply can’t take this long to change where Britain’s energy comes from for the better, the climate just won’t wait.

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Great result at the high court - 12 November 2009

Well it took longer than we hoped and three days at the High Court, but the Judge has finally made a ruling on the High Court challenge lodged against the planning approval. He has thrown out the reasons presented by those against the wind turbines at Lotus and determined that the decision made by South Norfolk Council to approve this application was wholly legal. Therefore the approval that we first got in July 2008 is re-instated.

As the Judge’s decision showed that South Norfolk Council made the right decision by approving the application, they are back in Court on Monday to request that the Judge award them costs.

We can now begin all the work that we had had to place on hold to get the turbines at Lotus installed and generating electricity.

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Judicial review announced - 18 June 2009

Although this application was approved by the local authority the decision is being challenged by a local group who campaigned against the Lotus turbines. A Judicial Review has been lodged which we are now responding to through the High Court.

We have been waiting for over six months for a date for the first hearing, and we now have one; it’s in early July. At this hearing we hope that the Judge will either throw out the case or require those opposing the decision to refine their reasons for objection.

Once we have either of these bits of information we can either start building the site or get on with defending South Norfolk Council’s decision to approve the application. South Norfolk Council are still supporting this application and are spending considerable time defending their decision to allow this wind park to be built.

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Wind Powered cars are on the way! - 23 July 2008

In a surprising U turn last night, South Norfolk District council voted to approve Ecotricity’s application to build three wind turbines at Lotus’s car factory in Hethel.

The Council had turned the same application down earlier in this year and looked sure to turn it down again and force an appeal – but, by just one vote, the application was approved.

The turbines are to be sited inside the test track at Lotus’s factory (an industrial site), which sits in a part of the district that the Council themselves had said was suitable for up to 6 wind turbines. The original refusal didn’t make much sense given that and the outcome at appeal looked pretty certain.

Construction work is expected to start next spring and the turbines should be up and running by later in the year.