We have been contacted by a farmer's wife, Jane Davis, who is at her wits end as a result of noise being generated by an eight turbine wind farm at Deeping St Nicholas in rural Lincolnshire. This wind farm commenced operations in mid summer and since then she has had her quality of life destroyed by night-time noise, even though the Environmental Statement said that there would be no noise. Her farmhouse is some 950m from the nearest turbine, further away than the nearest dwellings in Boxworth, Conington and Fen Drayton, and unexpected noise appears to be as a result of the constructive interference of the sound from a number of turbines in a row. She is keeping a log and it makes very disturbing reading with many sleepless nights and the resulting stress making normal life intolerable. The local Council have taken readings that confirm the problem and further investigations are in train.

 

This is not the first example of the problem and Hayes McKenzie, the same firm that did our noise survey, have recently produced a report for the DTI, studying 3 other wind farms that have had local residents reporting noise problems, and this report (link to report) confirms that there appears to be a problem with "aerodynamic modulation" and that this is more likely in flat landscapes in the East of England!! The issue is that the current testing regime for noise does not take this problem into account and given that for Conington the predicted noise is already right on the limit any unforeseen noise will cause problems for these villagers and potentially others.

 

Rest assured we will be raising this new problem vigorously at the Inquiry!!