Bus trip to answer turbine troubles

Cooma Monaro Express
Thursday 24/5/2007 Page: 3

MEMBERS of the local community will travel to Ararat this weekend to find out more about how wind turbines have affected the community there. The 33 people will leave Cooma on Friday and visit the Challicum Hills windfarm in the Ararat Shire in Victoria. Friends of Renewable Energy spokesperson, Bev Allen, said people would get a better understanding of windfarms on the trip because the Ararat region had a similar - and comparable - landscape to the Monaro. "The Ararat Shire is very like our broadacre farming country here, therefore we should get a good idea of what windfarms look like here," said Mrs Allen. "This will also give people an understanding of the technology behind windfarms," she said.

Cooma Monaro Council representative Cr Roger Norton will talk to windfarm owners, residents with property adjacent to windfarms, councillors of the Ararat Shire and other members of the local community to get a greater understanding of how they have all reacted to the installation of the Challicum Hills windfarm. "I would like to get a clear view of why the community accepted the installation of the windfarms and see if anyone raises any issues as well," said Councillor Norton. "It's such an important topic and it's very important we have all the information available, so we can hopefully make the best decision in the interest of our community," he said.