Overview of Davidstow Proposal
There is a proposal for a wind farm at Davidstow by a company calling itself Community Windpower Ltd. The name of the project is Davidstow Community Windfarm.
Despite the name 'Davidstow Community Windfarm', this project is not proposed by, and nor is it for the benefit of, the community of Davidstow. It is an industrial wind farm that is being imposed upon us by a company based in Cheshire. We feel that the use of the name, both for the project and the name of the company itself, is misleading and an insult to the people of Davidstow!
Click Click Here to see the sitings of the proposed turbines.
The proposal is for 20 turbines with a hub height of 80m, the blades will be 45.2m long with a rotor diameter of 92.5m. This makes a total of 126.25m to the tips of the blades. This is 415ft in old money and from where they will be positioned, they'll be higher than Roughtor and a just few metres short of Brown Willy!
The site is on the edge of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, partly within an Area of Great Landscape Value and Site of Special Scientific interest. It is in area 17 on the map of Cornwall County Council's Landscape Character areas rated Medium - High sensitivity and bordering area 25c rated High sensitivity. See Cornwall Sustainable Energy Strategy Map, Appendix 3 - Figure 2 [1.0Mb]
There is great concern about the threat to the fabulous birdlife, including our famous starling clouds in winter whose numbers have been counted to around one million birds. Then there’s the 100s of geese and golden plover, a large rookery, ravens and raptors. Other wildlife include rare bees and we will organise a survey of bats in the area to find out the species and roosting sites. Flora include orchids and drosera (sundews).
Davidstow is sometimes described as a "brown field site" because it was used as an aerodrome during the war. Many people think that the area should be preserved as a memorial to the service personnel who served here. Two museums occupy some of the original buildings.
