SAS supporters may remember June and Ed Hall’s problems with their neighbour’s noisy turbine. We highlighted their plight in our Newsletter two years ago (see below). An abatement notice was served and the turbine no longer operates and will shortly be removed completely. Ed and June complained to the Ombudsman about the way Highland Council handled the planning application and today their long awaited apology from the Council arrived (attached). Thanks to them, shortcomings have been identified and hopefully no one else will suffer the same misery they had to endure. They should be very proud of themselves for all their hard work. We salute you Ed and June!
To begin at the beginning, some time ago our neighbour decided to apply for planning permission for a 10Kw wind turbine, in fairness he spoke to us and our only other near neighbour and assured us that he had been promised noise levels of only an “occasional low hum” at his outbuildings, and as we were at least twice the distance from the turbine we were reassured. We did look at the planning application when it was available online and the accompanying noise level information gave us no cause for any concern. Whilst we were not overjoyed at the prospect of the development from an aesthetic point of view, our main fears over noise had been allayed so to be neighbourly we raised no objection.
In due course the construction of the base and the laying of cables began and the turbine itself was erected in mid March this year.
For the first few days we had unusually calm weather and the blades of the turbine hardly moved, however before the first week was out and with a slight increase in wind speeds it became apparent we had a major problem on our hands !
At low wind speeds, approx 5mph, we heard a combination of a two tone moaning tonal, pulsating noise which increases with wind speed and penetrates every room in our house and could be easily heard 300 metres away. As wind speeds increase the tonal noise was joined by and then drowned out by a loud steam engine/ helicopter noise, this has to be heard to be believed but was clearly audible half a mile away let alone our house which is little more than 100 metres away !
A visit to our neighbour followed where he reassured us that the turbine was faulty and no way would the level of noise be acceptable and that fuses were needed from America. The contractors would be returning shortly but as this particular turbine has no brake, the only way it can be silenced is to lower it to the ground by a hinge mechanism in the tower about 3′ from the ground. We later learned that this required a specialist bit of equipment which the contractor had but the owner had chosen not to purchase.
The din continued unabated for three weeks by which time us and other neighbours were beginning to lose patience, with near constant noise whenever the wind got over 6-10mph, not unusual weather for the North West of Scotland. As the nearest neighbours we were frequently woken in the night and enjoying our garden or opening windows became a rare luxury.
Eventually the contractors returned and tweeked and fiddled for an afternoon, they then left telling the owner that it was now properly set up, would be fine and “goodbye”. As early as that same evening it was apparent that there was no noticeable change whatsoever. Our neighbour told us that there was nothing more he could do.
By this stage we felt quite desperate at the thought of having to live by this noise for the rest of our lives, whilst being stuck in a worthless property no-one would consider buying. This was devastating for us as we’d owned our house for over 10 years before we able to move here full time, just 18 months previously … Our Dream Shattered !!!
It was at this stage and out of sheer desperation as it is not our way, we contacted Highland Council and subsequently a EHO made an appointment to come and see us, In the intervening week or so we had the good fortune to happen upon Aileen’s article regarding her turbine problem and another concerned neighbour contacted SAS. Coincidentally Aileen and our chief EHO were sat side by side at a turbine conference in Glasgow where it seems one of the main topics of discussion was that of turbine tonal noise.
We decided we ought to contact SAS for some advice as we have had no experience of this sort of situation nor knew of anyone who had. SAS put us in touch with Aileen and so begun an unbelievable amount of support and information from someone who doesn’t even know us and for no monitarial gain for SAS or herself.
The EHO duly arrived and of course the wind had frustratingly departed but he did get to hear a faint tonal noise which he seemed interested in and said he would return with recording equipment, which he did. Again, ironically the turbine was relatively quiet ! We had the sound equipment with us for 8 days, not the most pleasant of 8 days although we knew it was there to help us ,with it positioned in our bedroom. A very stressful week as we knew how important it was to record what we and others were suffering. Our previous method of trying to cope with the noise of the turbine was to keep turning up the radio or TV to try to drown out the turbine, this had to stop and we needed to concentrate on the noise to record it at it’s loudest.
At the end of this period we were visited by two EHO’s, thankfully they heard more noise than the two previous visits, they both concluded that the noise from the turbine constituted a statutory nuisance but they would need to listen to our recordings and may need more first hand evidence of the noise in order to make it stand up in court should this be necessary.
We went away for a week the day after this visit to try to get some peace for a special Birthday. The EHO said he would be sending an initial letter to our neighbour to clarify his position and to ask if anything more could be done by the contractors to mitigate the noise. This we believe arrived with our neighbour whilst we were away.
We arrived home on the 16th May to the sound of a steam engine, unbelievably loud !!! This continued on and off as it has since March whilst we awaited further news. Apparently the contractors and manufacturers had no sensible or practical solution to the problem, only suggesting that the turbine should be moved 200 metres further away from us, impossible as our neighbour’s land doesn’t extend this far and our experience with this turbine tells us that it would still be too loud even if this were possible for this to be carried out and would result in considerable expense.
We had a third visit from both EHO but unfortunately this wasn’t very successful due to calm conditions, very frustrating !!!
The EHO visited again, a 4th visit, the turbine performed at last and although not at it’s worst, it was sufficient for him to record all tonal noises described plus the loud steam engine noise, all on a pleasant and only slightly breezy day, one which ordinarily you could enjoy your garden and open your windows.
Our neighbour was asked by the EHO to “switch the turbine off immediately” but as mentioned before this is impossible as this turbine doesn’t have a break and lowering it to the ground as previously described would involve the contractors travelling 5 hours each way from Glasgow, whilst also needing calm conditions.
Time and the noise continued, in to June now, we heard from the EHO that he had issued our neighbour with a noise abatement notice on June 11th, he has two weeks to comply and here we are 22nd June, the turbine is still there and as noisy as ever. Anxiously awaiting a return to peace and quiet !!!!
In conclusion: We have been terribly affected and upset by this whole experience, none of it has been pleasant and whilst we are obviously looking forward to peace and quiet returning to our Highland home, we do not delight in the fact that our neighbour could potentially have lost a lot of money or at best faces a long and stressful time to resolve his predicament. After all, he didn’t anticipate the noise anymore than we did and we feel we have all been mislead by the inaccurately predicted noise levels supplied at the time of his initial enquiry to purchase a turbine, by an industry determined to sell and walk away from the consequences for both owners and neighbours. It remains a mess for all concerned and we would like to urge caution to both those intending to install a turbine and to those potentially unfortunate neighbours who may be expected to live by one. DON’T BELIEVE THE SPIN ! Do your research thoroughly, particularly about the noise emissions, obtain written assurances where possible, visit an existing insulation of the proposed make/model if possible.
Unbelievably “our problem” has been resolved very quickly, for which we are very grateful, our thanks go to EHO Highland Council and our neighbours Malcolm and June. Special thanks to the team at SAS, especially Aileen.
Aileen’s many many prompt email responses have been invaluable in terms of support and advice, thank you very much.
June and Ed Hall
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