Five-figure donation after turbine transporter crash
You may be interested in reporting an accident which occurred this morning 4+hrs ago. This happened on the A696, Newcastle to Jedburgh road, just south of Ravenscleugh Farm between Ottercops communication masts and Raylees. A transporter lorry travelling northbound, carrying a component for a wind turbine, presumably for the Green Rigg site south of Ridsdale, came off the road. . Photo taken by a fellow member of Middle Hill Action Group, Elsdon.
A Northumberland village, which was cut off for a week last year after a turbine transporter overturned, is set to receive a five-figure payout from the energy company.
Last May, a long vehicle carrying a turbine shaft to the Green Rigg windfarm site near Ridsdale in the west of the county, crashed on the A696 south of Otterburn and toppled into a ditch.
The damage to the road surface along with the removal of the turbine equipment itself, meant that the road, the main approach route into the village, was closed for a week.
Several businesses, as well as the parish council, made claims for compensation, with three businesses receiving payouts last year.
Now, EDF Energy Renewables, which built the windfarm has offered an £18,000 donation to Otterburn Parish Council, which will be put into a community trust fund.
A spokesman for the company confirmed that the payment had now been agreed. A meeting between a community representative from the company and clerk Martin Chilvers and chairman John Hartshorne from the parish council is due to take place next Wednesday to finalise the details.
It relates to the inconvenience experienced by the village during the road closure and is separate to the community fund paid to the area immediately surrounding the windfarm, which is customary in windfarm schemes.
The Green Rigg windfarm. which consists of 18 2MW turbines, has been operational since the end of the summer last year and EDF claims it will produce electricity equivalent to the typical annual domestic demand of around 19,000 homes.
l Further north in the county, another major windfarm is approaching its final stages of construction.
RWE npower renewables has targeted a spring 2013 end date for the erection of 18 turbines, 125metres-to-blade-tip, at Middlemoor.
Part of the construction works has involved the creation of new road access directly from the A1 to reduce the amount of traffic passing through the nearby village of North Charlton.
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Weather for Northumberland
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North
