A DEVELOPER is considering whether to appeal after being refused planning permission for a wind farm.

Durham County Council’s county planning committee rejected plans by Infinis for five turbines at Wingate Grange, near Peterlee, on Tuesday (December 2).

The firm was planning an Employability Fund with East Durham College worth

£62,500 per year to help at least 500 jobless local people to get skills training

Tim Mockridge, Project Manager of the scheme, said: “We are obviously disappointed by the committee’s decision.

“We felt, and continue to believe, that we have put forward a high quality planning application in accordance with all necessary planning policy.

“We committed to a number of local partnerships that would have provided genuine benefits, both social and economic to the local communities, and are frustrated that a slim majority of councillors did not agree that these benefits outweigh the concern raised by their planning officials.

“We will review the decision and reconsider the best course of action going forward.

“In any event, should we take the project forward and gain a consent in the future Infinis intends to honour all of the commitments we have made to our local partners and the local communities in full.”

Suzanne Duncan, Principal of East Durham College, said: “We are extremely disappointed by today’s decision.

“Wingate Grange represented an opportunity to give a significant number of local people, at least 500 over the lifetime of the project, a helping hand in gaining access to vital skills training that we know leads to employment and that would otherwise not be available.

“Given the levels of disadvantage in

these communities, it is a real shame that the committee did not consent the application.”

Infinis had also agreed a partnership with local

charity, East Durham Employability Trust, to provide £30,000 to train at least ten local people and a £21,000 grant to three community centres to subsidise their energy costs.

Councillors followed its officers’ recommendation to refuse planning permission after hearing that residents were fed up with wind farms being built in the area.

A petition and more than 160 letters of objection were sent by people in the Wingate, Wheatley Hill and Trimdon area. There were more than 210 letters of support.

The council’s spatial policy team opposed the proposals, considering that they were breached local planning policies and were against national development guidance.