Community’s continued support for Bishop Castle’s Wind Turbine

 Circumstances have forced the project team to abandon the original planning permission for a 1Mw wind turbine, and apply for new permission for a 2Mw turbine placed slightly lower down the field on the Oakley Mynd hillside to reduce the visual impact of its higher tip height. The new Community Benefit Society, Lightfoot Community Energy, is now being formed to take on the next stages of planning, funding, and construction.

 On 18th August the community energy team presented the plans for the revised bigger turbine to the Town Council, and got its unanimous support. Then on September 14th the team held a public meeting at BC Town Hall to share the plans. The team explained again the benefits of wind energy, and described particularly how the project set-up as a Community Benefit Society will result in substantial earnings for the community (measured in £millions during its c20-year operational life) instead of corporate investors.

 With this support in hand the team is going ahead with a new planning application.
If granted we expect the turbine to be up and running in 2028, supplying renewable electricity to Energy Club members whose properties are connected to the BC sub-station at a lower cost.  More details of the offer for shares in the turbine, followed later by the arrangements for Energy Club membership, offering reduced-cost electricity to local users.

To see whether your property is within the BC sub-station area, look at the adjacent map