No to turbine - because it could affect planes (From Braintree and Witham Times)

No to turbine - because it could affect planes

8:00am Tuesday 1st December 2009

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A FAMILY cannot install a wind turbine in case it interferes with radar signals or endanger low flying aircraft.

Steve Newton applied to Braintree Council earlier this year to install the 20-metre high turbine on land at his home, Monks Mill, in Cornish Hall End near Finchingfield.

He hoped to generate enough electricity to power the family home and feed some back into the National Grid.

But NATS - which provides air traffic control services - and BAA, the owner of Stansted Airport, objected, forcing Mr Newton to withdraw the plans.

Mr Newton, a father of two daughters, said: "Apparently the turbine spinning causes clutter - that's the official phrase - but how they can confuse something which is 50ft off the ground with an aircraft, I don't know."

The 55-year-old said Stansted is about 12 miles away as the crow flies and the contractor who would have installed the turbine had recently built an 18-metre high turbine about five miles from RAF Lakenheath without issue.

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