We have our public parish meeting on Tuesday (16th April) at Oulton Chapel at 8pm..  Please come if you can.  If not PLEASE make sure you register your view on the turbine via the ballot papers delivered through your doors.  Remember every adult is entitled to a vote so if you need more forms you can download one here.  You can email the completed ballot paper to nooultonturbine@gmail.com or give it to a friend or neighbour to bring to the meeting.

Good news for campaigners at Scottow and Hempstead this week.  Unfortunately not at Bodham though - imagine it might not be all over quite yet though....

And on that note thought we'd share the front page of yesterday's North Norfolk News.

Thank you for all your support and copies of your letters of objection to the planners.  There is still time to get your letters in even though the initial deadline has passed.  So please, if you haven't written to formally object yet please do so as soon as you can.

And here's a copy of an objection we've passed onto BDC which we received from Gerhard Heilig, a WWII Veteran who served at Oulton:

Thank you for letting me have this info about the projected wind turbine at the former airfield of Oulton.

I understand the necessity of establishing sources of clean and renewable energy. However, this should be done with due regard to the environment and the agreement of local residents. There are enough localities, such as off-shore and out-of-the-way ones, where wind turbines can be placed without bothering anyone. Oulton is certainly not one of these.

The people of Oulton are proud and actively engaged in the history of their village. The former airfield is an important part of this and the memory of those who have served there and have given their lives in the cause of freedom is maintained and commemorated at the local memorial.

Oulton is no place for a wind turbine, it would be a blot on the environment and an insult to the feelings of the residents of Oulton.

Let my friends of Oulton free and find a less offensive home for the wind turbine.

Gerhard Heilig

Veteran of 214 Squadron who had served at Oulton.

  

Thought you might enjoy this....

Here's a link to the letter we are sending to as many people as we can in the area outlining the proposal, how to object and why we think its NOT a good idea.  If you'd like to download it, print it, and give it your friends and neighbours please do!

Thanks

NOT

BM Turbine Letter and Information

As promised here are the aerial photos - thank you Sky High Imagery.  They show the view from 76m above the proposed turbine site which is just shy of what would be the tip of the turbine's propeller (77m).  Obviously you can see the whole of the village of Oulton, however its interesting to note that you can see Blickling Hall's upper windows in the distance as well as Blickling Church next to it.  On one of the shots of the area where the trees were felled you can also see Heydon Hall in the distance on the left.

Although these historical buildings look small in the distance its important to remember that the scale of the wind turbine is huge in comparison so it certainly won't look quite so tiny when viewed in the opposite direction!

NOT

Area of felled trees:

The turbine (and Big Ben! ) as it would look on the site:

The view across from the site in a North Easterly direction:

And zooming in on Blickling Estate:

Quick update for you as its all been happening over the weekend:

• The Forestry Commission have declared the felling of the trees officially illegal and have issued Bernard Matthews with a re-stocking notice.  Once we have details on this we'll share them with you here.  This news was broken by BBC Look East today - so tune in if you get the chance!  You can also read about it here: BBC News Online

• We have some great aerial photos of the site where the trees were (not any more!).  We've also got some photos and videos showing the view of the surrounding area from 76m up on the turbine site.  Shows clearly where the turbine will be visible from which includes many parts of the Blickling Estate.... we'll share them in the next day or two....

N.O.T.

It's Time To Act!

The planning application has gone in and has now been registered.  The application no. is 20130177.  Now is the time to let Broadland District Council planners know what you think of proposed turbine:

Broadland District Council - Bernard Matthews Turbine Application, Oulton, North Norfolk
NB This site seems to work better in Internet Explorer than some other browsers...

Latest News:

Bernard Matthews have felled 342 trees (almost an acre) on the proposed wind turbine site - potentially illegally.  The forestry commission have been in to investigate and Broadland District Council have been made aware of the tree culling as it seems neither organisation were either consulted or notified!

In fact the trees are exactly where they want to build the turbine and because they were in the way BM decided it would better to get rid of them before the planning application went in... In response to meia coverage on the subject they've said it was part of an "ecological review" and were removed because the trees may have caused an issue with the planning process for the turbine relating to bat colonies.  This seems to us even more cynical! 

The other major consideration that BM failed to take into account was that the company was ordered to put the trees up 22 years ago as a condition of their planning application to expand their poultry sheds on the site.  The trees were supposed to screen the units from view.  We're waiting to hear what Broadland planning have to say on this issue....

Some pictures of the carnage:

You can see the trees before they were felled in this aerial view: