Wind farm faces opposition

Westwood Country Park in High Green has been selected by Sheffield Council officials as the site for the first wind farm in the city. The council has given the go-ahead to the feasibility study but already the locals are opposing the project.

One of those against the wind farm being located at Westwood Country Park is Andy Redfern, a business executive who has resided along Merbeck Drive in High Green for close to two decades.

His nice family residence is close to the Barnsley border and the living room overlooks the hillside of Westwood Country Park where the wind farm will be located.

Andy Redfern’s worry is that the noise from the wind turbines will make every moment spent at his house a nightmare. Also there will be visual pollution caused by the constant turning of the blades.

To prevent the wind farm from being located at Westwood Country Park Andy Redfern and other worried residents created the ‘Save Westwood Country Park Group’, which is spearheading the campaign against the wind farm.

Mr Redfern says attempts by his group to obtain information from Sheffield Council officials have not been successful. The group is interested in finding out which developers the council has made contact with regarding the proposed wind farm.

A researcher at Sheffield University who did a survey on wind farms last year, Chris Jones, discovered that while people in the Thorpe Hesley and High Green areas were enthusiastic about renewable energy sources, the enthusiasm went down if the same people learnt that the wind farms would be situated near their residences.