'Wharrels Hill Wind Farm'

Location : Bothel / Ireby
Map - Ordnance Survey - NY 176377

Photo by Jan Fialkowski.

Anyone who has visited the little gem of an area known as North Allerdale will be aghast to know that this is yet another district where the windfarm salesmen have swarmed in. The ridges running along the north western fringe of the Lake District National Park are their target, and the intentions of these slick operators are now all too clear; the Lake District itself is to be surrounded by their flailing, flapping monstrosities.

One application, rejected by local council Allerdale, is at Wharrels Hill, which is a local landmark that looks right down to Bassenthwaite Lake and across to Skiddaw. This particular windfarm would intrude upon a wide area of some of the best walking country in the Lake District and would have a devastating effect upon the character of the whole area. It went ahead of course, despite the local opposition.

The site consists of 8 turbines, 76 metres high to blade tip.

The Council for the National Parks made a very convincing case:

"Both the scale and the nature of the development proposed at Wharrels Hill undermine the original concept of National Parks and are at odds with the founding philosophy of National Parks. The proposals run counter to the need of the nation for places where nature can be enjoyed for mental and physical well-being, in that they will result in years of visually damaging and large-scale industrial activity on the edge of the National Park.

They will also impinge significantly on the public's attempts to seek spiritual values in this part of the Lake District National Park".

Building construction eats up concrete, and to make one tonne of cement - a key ingredient of concrete - 900kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) are released into the atmosphere. Production of cement causes twice as many carbon emissions as the world's airline industry currently does. However, it also generates a fraction of the bad headlines. For a typical UK wind turbine 1,000 te's of concrete is used to make the base plinth. That puts 900 te's of C02 into the atmosphere..

Related Links :

• Proposed Wharrels Hill Wind Farm at Bothel - Country Guardian, with links to various windfarm action groups.
• Wharrels Hill Wind Farm
• Nuisance comments re Wharrels Hill Windfarm, Bothel
• Cement makers come clean

See also :

• Wind farms in West Cumbria
• Wind farm proposal for Tebay/Whinash