The fight for Hope Moor is set to be repeated across the UK as the government aims to hit its renewable energy targets
Instead of a slingshot, the Davids are brandishing a sculpture and a coffee table book. Their Goliaths are a Norwegian energy company and a UK energy secretary with renewable targets to meet.
A fierce battle has begun over one of England’s tallest windfarms, proposed for deep peat moorland overlooking the Yorkshire Dales national park, in what residents say will mark the irrevocable industrialisation of their rural landscape.
A local sculptor has constructed a scale model of one of Hope Moor windfarm’s 20 turbines, whose blade tips will reach 200m – as high as the “skyscraper” in Deansgate, Manchester, which is the tallest building outside London.
“It’s all very well talking about 200m but it’s hard to visualise it,” said Michael Kusz, who lives in Reeth, North Yorkshire. He has based his model on the model railway 00 gauge; a model person at this scale is 22mm tall.
