Angry campaigners planning to lobby Calderdale councillors against Hebden Bridge wind farm before meeting in Halifax next week

Ban The Burn, which formed to campaign against grouse shooting on peat moorland above the town, will hand in a petition with more than 160 signatures registering concerns over Calderdale Wind Farm Ltd’s proposals for a 65-turbine wind farm on more than 2,300 hectares of land at Walshaw Moor.

The campaigners say they support onshore wind farms but not on peatland like Walshaw Moor.

They argue that a huge wind farm on Walshaw Moor’s blanket bog would make a nature crisis worse and would not make the climate crisis better by damaging the peat.

Campaigners say the supporting letter with the petition will protest flaws they perceive in the way data which will inform the company’s case is generated and calculated.

Calderdale Council, as the planning authority to which the company submitted a scoping report for the scheme, has told the developers they must come up with data supporting their claims about energy generation and net zero goals.

Ban the Burn’s letter says: “There is no imperative reason of overriding public interest for their wind farm to go ahead and damage the integrity of the protected site’s peatland habitats, and the red-listed birds and other wildlife that depend on them.

“Wind farms could be sited solely on non-peatland sites, and other forms of renewable energy are available to meet carbon emission reduction targets.”

They will lobby councillors from 2.30pm ahead of the meeting’s start at 3pm.