Concerns raised over £100,000.00 a year Windfarm Community Benefit Fund
Concerns raised over £100,000.00 a year Windfarm Community Benefit Fund
Cllr Scott Dickinson has raised concerns with the Head of Planning at Northumberland County Council to seek clarification about what is happening with the Community Benefit Fund for the Windfarm in the Druridge Bay Ward.
Cllr Dickinson said “Many members of the Community and Parish Councils took time to meet and fill in forms to help formulate the Benefit Fund Committee who would help distribute the funds via the Community Foundation. To date none of those people have been invited to a meeting and little information can be found about what’s going on”.
“The Windfarm is now in place; the communities have been patient during its construction and have dealt with TV signal issues amongst other things and now they should be able to access the funding promised”.
Over £100,000.00 a year was to be shared between communities surrounding the scheme but yet not a penny has been allocated. That equates to over £1million for the lifetime of the project.
Councillor Dickinson is now asking where the money is, how long it will take before groups in the community can apply because it has been some time since the Windfarm became operational which is when the fund should start.
Councillor Dickinson added “Rumours are around that the site has been sold or is being managed by someone else, I have had no communication on this from anyone. I have written following questions being raised from members of the public but await a response from Northumberland County Council”.
NOTES
Link to Infinis website confirming timescales and numbers HERE
An annual fund of £5,000 per MW, index-linked, will be established for the Sisters Wind Farm to provide direct benefits to the local community for the 25 year life fo the wind farm. Assuming construction of all 4 turbines with a wind farm capacity of 8.2MW, this amounts to approximately £1 million, index-linked, over the life of the wind farm.
Timeline given out to the Community, Parish Council's & County Councillor
