Family fear split over turbine

A sufferer of a rare hearing condition is campaigning against plans for a 99.5-metre wind turbine that she says would prevent her from visiting her family.

Miss Lucinda Southern, 22, of Carlton-on-Trent, suffers from hyperacusis, which means that sounds acceptable to most people cause her severe pain, distress and panic attacks.

As a result, she said, it would be unbearable for her to be near a wind turbine like one being planned close to her family home in Tuxford.

Miss Southern was brought up in Tuxford and keeps livestock in the area.

Her work as a dog walker and animal carer is based in Tuxford.

Miss Southern and her mother, Mrs Christine Southern, have been handing out leaflets to let people know about the proposed turbine, which would be higher than the Big Ben clock tower.

Walker and Son Hauliers wants to put the turbine on its site on Ollerton Road to reduce carbon emissions and energy bills, increase its self-sufficiency in electricity production, and provide extra income.

News of the plans came as a double blow for Miss Southern.

She was considering moving back to Tuxford because of plans for a wind farm near her home in Carlton-on-Trent, but that option would be ruled out if the turbine is approved by Bassetlaw District Council.

“It has devastated the whole family. It takes away everything,” she said.

“I could find another house and have it adapted. I can’t have a new family and a new job.”

Miss Southern was concerned people had not been informed of the plans for the turbine.

She said it would impact on residents and local businesses, including a nearby dairy.

The turbine would be nearly six times taller than Tuxford Windmill, a local tourist attraction.

The owner, Mr Paul Wyman, said as a miller he was not against wind power but could not see the benefit a turbine would bring for the community.

“The only people who will make money are the landowners,” he said.

Mr Wyman said the turbine was an inappropriate size in an inappropriate place.

Mr Richard Walker, a director at Walker and Son, said the turbine would be on an industrial site and so was a less contentious application than a wind farm in a beauty spot.

He said it would have less impact than the power stations and pylons in the area.

Mr Walker said the turbine would not stand out as much as others of similar height because the site was in a valley.

Most of the electricity produced by the turbine would be used on the site.

Mr Walker said he did not think it would be commercially viable were it not for the Government’s feed-in tariffs, where energy suppliers have to make regular payments to those who generate their own electricity.