We have received the following open letter to all village residents, from Robert Gosling at Hill Top Farm. There will be a meeting, to which you are all invited, to discuss the proposal plan which he outlines below, pop into the Memorial Hall anytime between 6pm and 9pm on Tuesday 17th May.
Dear Resident,
You may be aware of my family farm at Hill Top Farm, either because you know me or a member of my family, or because you have walked or driven past the farm.
My family have in fact farmed in the Peak District for over 100 years, and from Hill Top Farm in particular since 1963. We have one full time and one part time employee to help my family manage a dairy herd of some 400 cows with 400 beef/follower cattle, and we farm approximately 765 acres of land.
The family are extremely interested in the environment. The farm is in the Uplands Entry Level Stewardship Scheme. The farm has also participated in a number of Peak Park Farm and Countryside initiatives for over 20 years (including over 2km of dry stone wall restoration, tree planting, daleside management etc). Linked to the environmental management of the farm, the business is also in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone and the family have therefore invested in precision slurry application equipment to significantly reduce the use of artificial fertilizer and make better use of the farm’s own natural slurry.
Although one of the largest dairy farms in Derbyshire, long winters coupled with the distance from the main milk processors means that in order to remain profitable, the farm is heavily reliant on family labour who draw little from the business. Eventually, I hope to pass the farm on to the next generation at some point in the distant future. However, in common with everyone, we have in recent years started to suffer from ever-increasing energy costs and in particular with electricity, which we use in large quantities twice a day every day to milk our cows. This is unavoidable with such a large herd and means that the farm’s need for electricity is at peak milking times more than that of a small village.
You will be aware that the predictions are that the cost of energy is only going to increase. Because of this, and the need to ensure the continued survival of my farm, I have spent many months exploring the possibility of installing a renewable energy supply. I have explored various options including wind, solar, anaerobic digestion and hydropower etc. Coupled with this I do have a genuine concern, shared with many, about global warming and reducing the carbon footprint of my farm. Indeed, initiatives from Goverment, retailers and processors have placed this objective high on the agenda. I have now established that of all of the different types of renewable energy, a medium sized wind turbine offers the best and most practical solution to meet the farm’s peak energy needs and supply environmentally friendly electricity back to the grid when not supplying the farm.
I am, however, well aware that such proposals can often generate a mixed response. Because of this, I have arranged to display my present proposal in the village hall at Parwich on Tuesday 17th May 2011 between the hours of 6.00pm amd 9.00 pm, when I and others will be on hand to explain my proposal in more detail, answer any questions and to listen to and take note of your views.
I would stress that at this time the proposal is not finally fixed and I will certainly listen to and take on board your views before proceeding any further, including the possibility of exploring benefits to the wider community .
I look forward to seeing you on the day. If you find that you are unable to attend, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with me directly on telephone number 01335 390249, when I will be pleased to discuss the matter in more detail including arranging, if required, a meeting either on the farm or at your home.
After the meeting has taken place in the village hall, details of the proposal will be posted on PARWICH.ORG together with a questionnaire which you will be able to print off, complete and send back to me. Again, all views and comments will be taken into consideration before a final decision is made regarding a possible planning application. If the decision is taken to proceed, then with your consent your views will be faithfully reported to the Peak Park Authority. The Authority will in any event carry out their own consulation exercise as part of any planning application, in respect of which you will be able to make your views known separately from this current exercise.
Robert Gosling
Gosling Farming Ltd
Please note: PARWICH.ORG, at the request of Mr Gosling, has agreed not to allow the opportunity for people to leave a comment on this subject until after 17th May 2011, when all the detailed documentation will be posted on the blog, togther with the formal questionnaire.
PARWICH.ORG 
Mr Gosling and his family should be applauded for there forward thinking, looking towards the future and securing there own energy needs.
Personally i find the wind turbines gracefull and aesthetically pleasing.
Without meaning to sound too facetious, please would Mr Gosling extend his environmental concerns towards keeping the lane and verges outside his Farm a bit cleaner and tidier? There has been many a time when my car has got plastered with cow muck & mud when I have gone that way, especially in the winter. I used to ride my horse on the grass verges along that lane when Mr Gosling senior farmed Hill Top, years ago. However, this would not be possible now because the ground is so rutted and churned up. There is also often heavy farm machinery parked on the verges as well.
As the photo montages show the wind turbine only as a faint distant image, would it be possible to see a close-up detailed picture of the proposed wind turbine please?
It would also be useful to see the photomontages for positions #3 and #8 (as per the map on Page 6 of the PDF), as these have been omiitted.
It would also be useful to know the decibil (sp?) level of sound they make, and how far the sound would travel into the village.
Debbie, there looks to be some information on Page 5 of the exhibition boards PDF (click here to open), although you have to enlarge the page quite a bit to see the detail.
This suggests that typical volume levels are 35 to 45 decibels at 350 metres (although the chart states this is for a “wind farm”, not a single turbine).
In the chart on the same page, it seems that parts of Parwich (including most of Smithy Lane and the upper stretches of Creamery Lane and Monsdale Lane) would fall within the 30 decibel radius (at wind speeds of 9 metres per second, which seem to be typical), although I wonder if this would be diminished for those properties which sit directly below Parwich Hill. The nearest affected properties are Town Head and Lowmoor farm.
Hope I’ve got all of this right…
Mike, can you put this into layman’s terms for me? How loud is 30 to 35 decibils? Like, the equivalent of the radio being played loud, a sneeze, or what?
Found this website on the Internet giving decibel equivalents – don’t know how accurate it is.
10 dB Normal breathing
20 dB Rustling leaves, mosquito
30 dB Whisper
40 dB Stream, refrigerator humming
50-60 dB Quiet office
50-65 dB Normal conversation
60-65 dB Laughter
70 dB Vacuum cleaner, hair dryer
75 dB Dishwasher
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Sounds/Decibles.htm
Sound is a peculiar issue – normal conversation is fine when you are taking part but can be irritating in a library.The sound of a mosquito can make me sit bolt upright in bed in the middle of the night! Similarly I couldn’t sleep with a refrigerator humming in my bedroom.
Most of us in Parwich (unlike our town cousins) take ‘country sounds’ – livestock noises,hens etc for granted but may find urban sounds such as traffic and perhaps the continual mechanical hum of a wind turbine more intrusive.
If the wind turbine produces energy which exceeds the milking needs of the farm, which I presume it inevitably will do, would this excess energy (eg free electricity) be given to villagers? Or would the excess energy be sold to the electricity board for profit?
At the end of the day, a wind turbine is going to be intrusive one way or the other for everyone in Parwich. What are the benefits to the village as a whole? I might be able to put up with the view and the noise if it helped pay my electricity bill. If it didn’t, I would be hard pressed to encourage this endeavor.
I agree with Lesley. The road is not a good indication of environmental concerns – really unpleasant on foot and dangerously slithery (and unpleasant) in a car.
I made this point to one of the consultants at the open meeting in the Memorial Hall; I also asked about the possibility of the village being able to benefit from the project. Apparently this could be a possibility.
It couldn’t just be a question though of us benefitting without being involved and contributing in some way to the cost of setting up what would become a bigger project.
We found the open meeting Mr Gosling organised was very informative and his professional consultants seemed genuinely concerned to take on board everybody’s concerns and suggestions. We were assured that all comments would be taken into consideration before any decisions made.
Update on proposed wind turbine.
Many thanks to those of you who attended our display on 17th May, we were very pleased with the discussions and conversations on the night. Many of you have filled in questionnaires and returned them to us.These along with the posts on the blog have given us a range of questions,comments,and suggestions which we will respond to once we have got silaging out of the way. In the meantime please continue to return the questionnaires or leave comments and suggestions on the blog. We will post the results of these by the 17th June on Parwich.org