Landscape

Some 50,000 people come every year to enjoy the stunning landscape and tranquillity of this beautiful part of Cheshire.

The diagram shows a modern wind turbine, similar to those proposed (but recently turned down) at Aston.

The tip of the turbine blade is higher than Maiden Castle on the top of Bickerton Hill and is indeed more than twice as a high as the wind monitoring mast erected at the beginning of this year.

A drawing of Bickerton Church is included in the diagram to show the relative size of a modern wind turbine compared with another local landmark. In words, the turbine is approximately ten times as high as Bickerton Church, but of course it is some distance away, as acknowledged on the diagram.

As well as height, "sky space" is an important issue. By sky space we mean the area that is swept by the turbine blades as they rotate. The blade diameter of the turbines at Aston was 90 metres. If you do the maths and the necessary conversions, this equates to an area of approximately 1 ½ acres, the size of a small paddock.

If you look at the adjacent diagram, you'll see that the sky space of a modern wind turbine is even larger than the sky space occupied by a rotating jumbo jet.

Finally, there are some technical terms associated with landscape and visual intrusion. A recent report published by a local authority defines the impact of wind turbines on the landscape as follows:

We can conclude from this table that the proposed wind turbines would dominate the landscape viewed by local residents and the 50,000 visitors who come to Bickerton and Cholmondeley every year.

Motion based visual intrusion

While pictures and diagrams can give us some idea of the visual intrusion caused by wind turbines, the full impact is seen only when the turbines are rotating and particularly when several turbines are rotating with blade tip speeds sometimes in excess of 150 miles per hour.

This was well summed up by a planning inspector who turned down the proposed wind turbines at Whinash. In his report he said "the natural inclination of the eye is to focus on discordant, moving features when scanning the landscape".
This would perhaps explain why developers rarely show photo-montages with moving images. Take a look at this rural scene in Kent to see the effect that a single turbine might have on our landscape by clicking here.

Or take a look at this video. It's impossible to drag your eyes away from the rotating blades.

Photo Gallery