Special Council Meeting, 8 July 2010

HELMDON PARISH COUNCIL
All Councillors are summoned an Extra Ordinary Meeting of Helmdon
Parish Council to be held in the Reading Room, Church Street, Helmdon on Thursday 8th July 2010, commencing at 8 pm
Members of the public and Press are invited to attend and to participate in the Open Forum
AGENDA
1. Apologies for Absence
2. To consider responses to South Northants Council’s policy consultations on
• Wind Turbines SPD (Consultation Draft May 2010)
• Re-Use Of Rural Buildings SPD (Consultation Draft May 2010)
• Developer Contributions SPD (Consultation Draft May 2010)
Signed _______________________
Dated________________________
Liz Hart, Parish Clerk
[address removed]

10/ 12
HELMDON PARISH COUNCIL
Draft Minutes of the Extra-Ordinary meeting of Helmdon Parish Council held on
Thursday 8th July 2010 in the Reading Room, Church Street, Helmdon at 8pm
Present: Councillors Barnes, Burns, Duncombe, England, Coatsworth, Turner
Parish Clerk: Liz Hart
Six members of the public were present.
Action
1 Apologies
The following apologies were received and accepted:
Cllrs Earl, Thorne, Crouch – work commitments
2 To consider responses to South Northants Council’s policy consultations on
• Wind Turbines SPD (Consultation Draft May 2010)
• Re-Use Of Rural Buildings SPD (Consultation Draft May 2010)
• Developer Contributions SPD (Consultation Draft May 2010)
It was resolved to provide the following response to the Wind Turbine Document:
The Parish Council notes that it is VITAL that developments receive broad public support and that this is in line with the position of the coalition government.
The Parish Council fully supports para 7.4 relating to anemometer readings being taken over a 12 month period before planning applications may be submitted.
Generally, there seems to be little or no redress on wind farm operators to take remedial action in respect of operational complaints particularly about noise.
Could SNC include a clause that would enable legally enforceable conditions to be included in any planning consent requiring wind farm operators to properly investigate and rectify any reasonable complaint within a fixed period of time. Additionally a form of penalty should included in the planning conditions for failing to comply, the form of which could be project specific but which must be enforceable, effective, dissuasive and proportionate
The Parish Council would like an exclusion zone of 2 km around wind turbines to protect people’s amenity.
The Parish Council queries whether turbines are lit at night and the impact of this on the night sky.
In summary the Parish Council feels that the document is well balanced and addresses the need to protect what is special within South Northamptonshire whilst following Government guidelines for renewable energy.
The other two consultations were discussed but no formal response was to be made by the
Parish Council.
The meeting closed at 9.05pm