THE group fighting a proposed windfarm in Bradwell say the unpredictable amount of power produced by ten 400ft turbines doesn't justify the ruination of the countryside.

In his evidence to a planning inquiry in Maldon sparked by the district council's refusal of Npower's windfarm plans, Neil Yates, chairman of Battle (Bradwell and Tillingham Against Lost Environment), described a large helium balloon flown over Bradwell and Maldon to show the height of the turbines.

The balloon, flown at the height of a 40-storey tower block, was "very visible" from St Cedd's School in Bradwell village centre, he said.

Describing the 900 Battle supporters who had given their time and thousands of pounds to fight the windfarm plan, Mr Yates said: "We are not nimbies."

Mr Yates said he had visited "numerous turbines" including some in Norfolk of similar size to those planned for Bradwell.

Describing the "whoosh and thump" of the blades and the "hypnotic" shadows they cast, he said windfarms should not be sited on the Dengie marshes or near St Peter's Chapel.

When Npower's advocate David Hardy quoted documents describing the benefit of windpower as "intermittent generation", Mr Yates said he preferred the word "unpredictablility".

Also speaking for Battle on behalf of the Council for the Protection of Rural Essex (CPRE), Peter Chillingworth said his group didn't object to windfarms and appreciated the need to reduce fossil fuel use.

Mr Hardy countered with a report by Newcastle University which cited the need to protect tranquility, "but wind turbines are OK".

Michael Helm, chairman of the Dengie Group of Parish Councils, described the narrow winding routes to Bradwell through the 17 parishes he represented.

Concerned about increased traffic during the construction of a windfarm, Mr Helm said any accident involving "an extra large lorry" would have severe consequences.

Speaking independently against the windfarm proposal, Kevin Ascott of the Ramblers Association described wind turbines as "vertical intrusive monsters" whose appearance in Bradwell would be "industrial diversification".

He agreed with Mr Hardy that there was support for wind turbines, "but it is not the windfarm, it is where you put it".

* For a full report on the Bradwell Wind Farm planning inquiry, see next week's Maldon and Burnham Standard