Among their claims, protesters say noise from the turbines will affect the newly-built school in Swinford and force parents to pull children out of classes.

But developers Nuon Renewables said these claims are just scaremongering tactics.

More than 150 protesters walked through the proposed site of the wind farm at the weekend to voice their anger at the plans to build a number of 125-metre turbines near Swinford.

But a Nuon spokesperson said: "With the objector group sending offensive letters to landowners and spreading considerable unreferenced misinformation, it has been difficult to have a debate based on fact and not fiction.

"I am saddened to see that the objectors have spent so much of their time scaremongering and not looking into the finer detail of the extensive planning application.

"I was interested to see that local objectors chose to highlight the Swinford Wind Farm proposal by organising a protest walk along a path that will not be affected by the operation of the wind farm, should planning consent be granted.

"This suggests to me that the walk was purely a media stunt."

After the protest, Keith Kilbane, chairman of Stop Swinford Wind Farm Action Group, said: "These people normally use this amenity in solitude, or in small groups – which have been ignored by the developers.

"The presence of so many (at the protest) shows how deeply people treasure the access they have to walk, cycle, ride or run through this glorious countryside.

"This unsuitable and ill-conceived plan to develop a wind farm will threaten all that for insignificant, dubious energy gain at the cost of serious environmental damage."

The deadline to hand public objections to Harborough District Council was on Tuesday. The objections raised included visual instrusion, frequency noise that will affect the school and effects on wildlife.



PLANS for two 90-metre wind turbines are set to get the go ahead near Crick and Kilsby. They will power the Tesco Distribution Centre at DIRFT.

Councillors are set to approve the proposals at a meeting next Wednesday (May 21).