DARWEN residents could face a reprieve from a proposed wind farm after a Government-commissioned report recommended that the future for energy-production lay with off-shore wind farms.

Now objectors to the controversial plan on Darwen Moors, close to Darwen's famous tower, hope it sinks without trace.

A team of energy experts have spent several months investigating a range of alternatives to gas, coal and nuclear power stations, deciding that Lancashire could be better served by floating wind farms anchored off the coast in the Irish Sea. Darwen residents, who have set up a committee opposed to the proposed windfarm - contracted to energy giant PowerGen - say the report should be taken on board.

Julian Donnelly, of the Darwen Moors Wind Farm Opposition Group, urged PowerGen to take the report on board.

He said: "Off-shore wind farms are a much better idea than ones which destroy areas of unspoilt countryside such as the moors. We have no objection to re-newable energy as long as the environmental costs don't outweigh the benefits, as they would on Darwen Moor."

Darwen councillor Paul Browne said the proposals in the report were much more sensible than the Darwen Wind Farm initiative. He said: "This report should be looked at and its suggestions considered because they wouldn't have the same damaging effects on communities and nature as the wind farm here on the moors would have."

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