WIND farm protesters were in jubilant mood last night as Ribble Valley planners gave the thumbs down to an application for a monitoring mast.

Campaigners who attended the borough planning and development committee meeting gave a round of applause as councillors refused permission for the wind speed and direction equipment on Longridge Fell at Dutton.

Members of the committee had slammed the company Lynborne Limited of Blackburn, who had put the 40m-high mast on land at Moor Game Hall Farm without planning permission.

Councillor Howel Jones said: "This was a deplorable thing to do.

"At this moment we must forget the wind farm and concentrate on the monitoring mast and we must vote against it if we feel it is the wrong thing in the wrong place."

Residents and country lovers were outraged when the application for a monitoring mast was submitted to council planners.

They formed a campaign group and councillors last night heard that thousands of letters of objection had been sent in.

The wind farm company had been seeking permission for the monitoring equipment for a 12-month period and, if the project had been viable after that, it was likely that a full application for a four-turbine wind farm would have been put forward.

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