The Stonewall Hill Conservation Group has been set up to co-ordinate actions and protect the tranquillity of Stonewall and Reeves Hill which is under threat from the wind energy developer Bolsterstone Plc in conjunction with landowner Simon Gourlay. We welcome the establishment of renewable energy schemes whose environmental and social benefits clearly and demonstrably outweigh their various costs and which enjoy the full support of their host communities. The so-called “Reeves Hill Community Scheme” meets neither of these criteria.

The wind farm would have 4 turbines, 105m tall to blade tip, with blade-sweep of up to 40m radius.  Stonewall Hill is a particularly unsuitable site for such a scheme. The hill is a highly visible and exposed 400m (1300ft) ridge running along the Border between England and Wales parallel to Offa’s Dyke and close to Stanage, a landscaped parkland of national importance. The proposed turbines are  just “fall-over distance” from an accessible Powys road, well-used and much loved by locals, sight-seers, walkers, cyclists, and horse-riders. The scheme’s forecast output of well under 25% of 9.2MW capacity does not justify the damage to the beauty, the historical importance and the amenity of the surrounding countryside.

There would be 15 houses within 1000m of the proposed turbines with the nearest at only some 510m away.  Apart from the towering visual impact, occupants will be affected by noise which in some areas have driven people from their homes.  In the UK, many Local Authorities are trying to impose limits on how close wind turbines can be to residents. These limits are invariably over 1km.

The turbines would put a blight on a hill valued for its recreational amenity and for its magnificent 360 degree views over the Shropshire AONB, the Teme Valley, Radnor Forest, the Brecon Beacons, Hay Bluff, the Malvern Hills, Clee Hill, etc. Views in from all these points would be spoiled by distracting moving structures over 100m tall. Users of the internationally famous Offa’s Dyke Path, only 3 km away, would experience repeated views, notably from Hawthorn Hill and the Green Price Memorial.

Although the turbines are in Herefordshire, the last 5km of access are in Powys. The Developer needs to build a new length of private road in Powys as well as make nineteen    sections of  road modifications to Powys public highways to build the wind farm. In 2008, Powys County Council wrote to Herefordshire Council recommending refusal of the wind farm application.

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