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Go-ahead for wind turbines
A PIONEERING scheme for a seven-storey block topped by 10 "micro wind turbines" is set to go ahead - despite fears from residents it will be too high and too noisy.
Councillors approved the scheme at a meeting on Monday. It is the first time planning permission has been granted for wind turbines on a residential building in Islington.
There are currently turbines at Islington Ecology Centre and at Islington Town Hall.
The Texaco petrol station in Clerkenwell Road, Clerkenwell, will be demolished to make way for the development, which will include three shops, two offices and eight flats.
The 10 "green" wind turbines - standing at three metres high - will go alongside solar panels on the roof and help create 20 per cent of the power for the building. A Clerkenwell Green resident said: "I represent people who live in Clerkenwell Green and our principal objections are to the height, the noise and the effect it will have on daylight and privacy.
"We feel the height is excessive. Wind turbines are still a new technology and we think they will make excessive noise. What will happen if they do make excessive noise for a few moments or 10 minutes at a time when we are trying to go to sleep and what will the council do?"
A spokeswoman for the developer, Azure Property LLP, said: "We have been working since 2005 when we purchased the site to redevelop this filling station.
"We have amended our plans to cut back the top balcony level and reduced a significant number of windows to cut back the potential for overlooking homes."
She added: "All the turbines shut down with high wind speed which would create the highest noise output so the technology is there to deal with the issue. The noise output is limited at no more than five decibels. If you consider that the smallest thing a human ear can detect is three decibels it puts it in context."
Councillor George Allan (Liberal Democrat), who chaired the meeting, said: "We are going into unchartered territory with wind turbines on residential developments but someone has to be the first.
"If the turbines were to breach noise limitations they could be closed down by the planning enforcement unit. It may not please everyone but there seem to be no plausible ground to refuse it.
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