Hundreds attend exhibitions on proposed wind farm for Frodsham and Helsby Marshes

Dec 3 2009 by Paul Mannion, Chester Chronicle

EXHIBITIONS giving the communities of Frodsham, Helsby and Elton the opportunity to see Peel Energy’s plans for a wind farm on the marshes were attended by more than 550 people last week.

The events were held at the Main Street Community Church, Frodsham, on Wednesday, Elton Community Centre on Friday and Helsby Community Centre on Saturday.

Peel Energy development manager Stephen Snowdon said: “We had a great response to the exhibitions, with many people keen to find out more about the scheme.

“It was an opportunity for us to share more details on our proposals and also to listen to what local people thought about the scheme.

“The vast majority of residents were supportive of renewable energy in principle, but wanted to understand more about topics such as noise and visual impact.

“We were able to talk on a one-to-one basis about their concerns and explain why we believe the canal dredging site is such a good location for a wind farm.”

The £50m scheme includes plans for 21 turbines standing more than 400ft high.

Extensive studies are still being carried out on the site, including assessments of noise and visual impact.

Findings from these studies as well as feedback from the exhibitions will be used to refine the proposals.

“It is still early days, but we wanted to give residents a glimpse of how the proposed wind farm may look and understand their points of view,” added Mr Snowdon.

“The feedback from local residents is very important to us and over the coming weeks we will be looking closely at their comments, together with reports from environmental studies.

“We would be grateful if anyone who visited the exhibition return the questionnaire that they do so as soon as possible.”