The upper dale’s county representative is calling on people to make their views known about plans for a windfarm at Hope Moor.
Fred Olsen Renewables is proposing to put up 20, 200m tall, turbines on the moor between Barningham and Richmond.
Parish and county councillors were invited to briefings about the plans.
The turbines could produce about 100MW of power, enough to power 81,000 homes.
Fred Olsen Renewables described the drop-in events at Reeth, Barningham and Bowes as an informal opportunity for local representatives to ask questions about the proposal.
The energy generation company has already succeeding in getting a Section 25 Direction which qualifies the scheme as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, which means the power to approve it will rest in the hands of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Upper dale representative Cllr Richard Bell said if approved the new turbines would be the tallest in County Durham, towering above those at Tow Law.
He wants people to share their views on the project.
Cllr Bell said: “At this stage the developers haven’t firmed up exactly where the turbines will be, nor where they will be visible from; that will be given in the public consultations, likely in March, when they have done the modelling to define the Zone of Theoretical Visibility (ZTV).
“The access roads that will be needed will be given then too. But it is clear that it is a big development of around 20 turbines of 200m height, which is twice as high as anything in County Durham at the moment, for example at Tow Law.
“And it is hard to see how that can be done without significant damage to the environment, albeit a lot of money will be spent on mitigation and remediation of harm. People can keep up with the plans at hopemoor.co.uk, and email comments at [email protected].
“The decision will not be made by the council but by the Planning Inspectorate and Secretary of State.
“It would be helpful as people write in with comments if they cc me in at [email protected].”
