The proposed site for the wind turbine is on land south of Sheephurst Lane in Marden. It lies in the Teise Valley and the turbine would be right on the banks of the River Teise. It is not in a designated landscape area although the Maidstone Borough Council's "Landscape and Character Assessment Guidelines" for the area designated as the "Teise and the Upper Medway Valleys contains the following planning guidance.

1. “In this area there is no settlement within the floodplain, due to the risk of flooding and no development should be proposed in these areas.”
2. Although not quite as sensitive in nature conservation terms as the river Beult, this river valley landscape is very sensitive to change. There is neither topographical variation nor extensive woodland cover to provide a robust character and any development would be potentially detrimental, especially between the floodplains of the two rivers.
3. “Development areas should reflect the flat, open character of the local landscape.

The site is just a few metres from the Tunbridge Wells Borough boundary and the designated Special Landscape Area. Tunbridge Wells has much more specific planning guidelines for the protection of the Teise Valley . In these guidelines it is stated that" the local objective should be to “ maintain the secluded, sparsely settled character of the area. It is important that the area does not become further developed. The Teise valley is highly visually permeable and any development, even single farm buildings on the valley floor or adjacent valley side, has the potential to be intrusive.”

A little further to the South lies the AONB. This turbine would be highly visible from a huge portion of this very special area. Just to the North of the site is the main London to Dover railway line. At present the tourists and commuters have a beautiful view as they look from the train towards Goudhurst. If this proposal goes through the view would be totally dominated by a wind turbine rising 127 metres into the sky.

The map above is the 20km zone of theoretical visibility submitted by the applicants, Wind Direct. A 127m high turbine would clearly completely dominate this area and, as the map shows, would be visible for miles in all directions. It would also be the height of naivety to believe Wind Direct's claim that they are only interested in one such turbine. If permission is granted for this one many more will follow. Kent County Council has no criteria based guidelines for the location of these huge onshore turbines and is currently a soft-target. The local planners have no guidelines and no practical experience of dealing with applications such as these.

The nearest houses are just over 500m from the site. There is a wealth of evidence that turbines situated too close to houses cause huge problems for those living in them. The problems arise from the noise as the blades sweep through the air and, so called shadow flicker. The Scottish Executive recommends a minimum distance of 1 km, the national planning guidelines, PPS22, cite 920m as the distance required to avoid shadow flicker and the consultants advising farmers suggest that no site with houses within 600m will be considered. Responsible wind turbine companies such as E.ON will not even look at sites which have houses within 750m.

Marden farmer Peter Hall and Wind Direct are being socially irresponsible in even considering this site as are Wind Direct's financial backers, HgCapital, who have failed to set, as a basic requirement, that best industry practice should be followed at the sites they are prepared to invest in. 

If you believe that Marden ,the Teise Valley the Kentish Weald and, ultimately, rural Kent  have to be protected from wind turbine development do all you can to support us.