We have been waiting for this, E-ON have finally submitted a planning request. Thankfully not for the wind farm, but they have asked for permission to erect a 60 metre anemometer, more commonly known as a met mast. E-ON will use this to gather wind speed data over the coming months, the planning request states that the mast will be in place for up to 24 months. The plans show that the mast will be erected between Tally Ho covert and the A14, adjacent to the byway that runs between Haselbech and Clipston.

As we understand it, virtually no similar planning request has ever been refused, so we might as well accept that this mast will go ahead. The local parishes that have contacted us and who have responded to the planning application, have asked the council  for assurances that the mast be a sufficient distance from the byway, so as not to cause any potential hazard and health and safety issues if it were to topple over.

This application for a met mast shows that wheels have most certainly been set in motion for the full wind farm application, and we will continue to plan our fight against that.

Following the abhorrent recent vandalism to the viewing platforms built by the Naseby Battlefield Project, we have issued the following press release -

Press Statement 18 August 2008

Stop Kelmarsh Windfarm Campaign – Vandalism at Naseby Battlefield

Stop Kelmarsh Windfarm Campaign group have been informed that vandalism and graffiti has been found at the Naseby Battlefield Project viewing platforms. Apparently the graffiti purported to support an anti-windfarm position, although it has been removed and no member of the Campaign committee has therefore seen it.

The Campaign committee wishes to make it unequivocally clear that the Campaign is not responsible for, nor aware of, this contemptible activity.  The Campaign does not endorse this or any other kind of destructive activity.

Such activities are totally against the principles and purpose of our campaign: the protection of Naseby Battlefield is a fundamental issue in our campaign against the Kelmarsh windfarm. It is the view of the Campaign that the Battlefield will be significantly adversely affected by the proposed development – which position is acknowledged by the Battlefield Preservation Trust and English Heritage – and the Campaign applauds the work of the Naseby Battlefield Project in preserving and publicizing this important site.

This disgraceful act of vandalism, and our condemnation of it, was covered in the Northampton Chronicle & Echo http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Swastika-graffiti-at-Naseby-battlefield.4402888.jp

Not unsurprisingly, there has been a lot of interest in the local press who are keenly following our campaign. The letters page of the Harborough Mail has regularly featured the concerns of residents; click these snippets to read the whole letter —

“Hard-pressed to find a more inappropriate site” – 6^th March 2008

“Just the tip of the windfarm iceberg” – 6^th March 2008

And this is my favourite, which can be found at the bottom of the letters page. It’s short and to the point –
“YET another windless day! Which genius thought of placing a wind farm anywhere near Kelmarsh? Name(s] please!” – 24th April 2008

One of Britain’s top historians has expressed serious concern at plans to build a wind farm next to the Naseby battlefield.

Professor Richard Holmes, who is president of the Battlefields Trust, said he feared the seven, 377ft turbines which power company E.ON wants to build close to the Northamptonshire site could have a real negative impact.

“I think any reasonable person would certainly not be for it.”

This is taken from an article that appeared in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo on 23^rd February 2008,

Click here to read the whole article

As we have stated elsewhere on this site, we believe that this proposal is more about greed than any green issues. If further evidence of this were needed, an article was published recently in the magazine of a local estate agent – Fisher German.

Mark Newton the Head of Fisher German’s wind farm department states –

“There is an immense amount of money to be made” and

“Land owners are in a prime position to make phenomenal profits”

Click here to read the whole article