ORDERS to remove wind farm equipment from a beauty spot will be issued immediately but planning appeals could mean the mast on Longridge Fell will stay for a year.

Members of the borough planning and development committee backed local residents and campaigners battling to have the 40m high wind speed measuring mast removed from land at Moor Game Hall Farm, Dutton.

The mast had been erected by Blackburn-based company Lynborne Limited without planning permission and councillors refused retrospective approval.

Planning chiefs had recommended that the committee approve the plan, given that it was only for one year. Enforcement action is to be taken by the council, which means that the company and landowner will have 28 days to remove the mast before the matter goes before local magistrates.

But a planning spokesman said that if the company appeals, all enforcement action will be put on hold until an inquiry.

A spokesman from the development control department of Ribble Valley Borough Council said: "If an appeal is lodged, it is quite likely, given the enormous numbers of local objections, that there would be a public inquiry.

"Given the current workload of the Department of the Environment, it could be that that inquiry would not be held until after the 12-month period that the applicant wanted to carry out monitoring tests."

A spokesman from the wind farm company confirmed that an appeal was likely. He said: "The company will be instructing an appeal, especially as the planning officers had recommended approval of the mast to councillors." But campaigners are still elated at their victory in the first battle over wind farm plans.

Mr Geoff Payne, who lives near to Moor Game Hall Farm and has spearheaded the protest, said: "We are obviously delighted but we realise the war is not yet won.

"We appreciate that the mast will probably stay for 12 months and that the company will be able to carry out tests but it was good to see that councillors reflected the views of the voters."

The Longridge Fell project is the first of two applications which have been submitted to Ribble Valley Borough Council.

A second wind farm scheme is blowing up a storm on Easington Fell at Newton, where a different company has also erected a smaller mast without permission and is seeking planning permission for a similar 40 metre measuring mast.

That aplication is to be put before planning councillors in April.

Mr Payne added: "The public cannot afford to go to sleep now.

"Everyone who objected to the Longridge Fell proposal must voice their opinions on the Easington Fell scheme."

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