Coronation plans to develop a 12 turbine wind farm on land near Wardle and Littleborough in east Lancashire.  Planning applications for the scheme were submitted to Rochdale and Calderdale Councils in 2007 and the scheme was approved (after appeal) in October 2009 by the Department of Communities & Local Government.

After further examination of the site area, and in light of securing planning approval for 12 turbines, Coronation has chosen to submit two revised applications to the local planning authorities. Each application is identical in size and each takes account of the previous approvals but differ with regard to the proposed access routes to and from the site. These applications have now been submitted to the Local Planning Authority.

Subject to securing planning approval, necessary finance and common land agreements, construction of the wind farm is targeted to start in 2012 and most likely to enter commercial operation later that year.

This section provides an overview of the scheme.

The site is owned by Jeremy Dearden (Lord of the Manor of Rochdale) who has been paid a nominal sum for Coronation to have an exclusive option agreement on the land.

Once the wind farm enters commercial operation, Mr Dearden will be paid an annual land rental fee which will be a percentage of the total revenue generated by the wind farm on the land. This figure has been agreed and is based on industry standard fees.

The wind farm consists of 12 turbines which will be capable of providing enough electricity to meet the domestic energy needs of almost 25,000 homes*. Each turbine will produce up to 3 MW of power, giving the site a potential total output of up to 36 MW. A detailed environmental impact assessment (EIA) was undertaken as part of the project development process and was an integral part of the planning applications that were originally submitted to Rochdale Council and Calderdale Council, the local authorities and thereafter the Planning Inspectorate.

*Figures based on average annual household electricity consumption of 4.7 MWh as recommended by Renewable UK.

A series of technical and environmental studies, such as wind speed, noise, visual impact, local ecology and the archaeology of the surrounding area were undertaken as part of the EIA, and various organisations were consulted, including Rochdale and Calderdale Councils, Lancashire County Council, Greater Manchester Ecology Unit, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, English Nature, the RSPB and the Environment Agency. These organisations, as well as Rossendale Council, will again be consulted as part of the process for the revised application.

The studies were carried out by Dulas Ltd, one of the UK's leading renewable energy consultancies (www.dulas.org.uk).

Local consultation was an important part of the planning and development process and the revised application will again be subject to consultation.

In May and November 2006, we held public exhibitions of our plans and we have had meetings with various civic and community groups, including the Wardle Society and the Crook Hill Commoners as well as answered questions from individuals received via our online feedback mechanism. We also had dialogue with a number of statutory bodies and consulted various commercial firms and public bodies, such as the MoD, Home Office, the mobile phone companies and the CAA.