PLANS for a wind turbine which would stand taller than York Minster on the edge of the city look set to be rejected for the second time.
A planning application to build the turbine, which would reach 78 metres from its base to blade tip, at Ivy House Farm in Kexby by the A1079 was submitted last autumn. But it was criticised by planners when it reached the City of York Council's planning committee in November.
Councillors asked the developers Easingwold-based EDP Energy for more information about any "special circumstances" which would be needed to justify the greenbelt development.
Concerns were also raised from English Heritage that the turbine would damage the setting of scheduled ancient monuments in the area, like the historic moat at nearby St Lois Farm.
Now the plan is about to go before the planning committee for a second time, and the planning officials have once again criticised the scheme and advised councillors to turn it down.
The planners' written report says: "The proposal constitutes inappropriate development within the green belt and is therefore, by definition, harmful to the openness of the green belt.
"It would furthermore cause serious harm to the purposes of including land within the green belt, specifically the safeguarding of the setting of the historic city and the prevention of encroachment upon open countryside by virtue of its extreme height and solid engineered urbanised appearance."
The proposal attracted opposition from Kexby's own parish council as well as neighbouring Dunnington and Murton councils, the city council ward councillor Jenny Brooks, and York Outer MP Julian Sturdy.
When it first emerged, Cllr Brooks said she was worried this single turbine could open the door to many more which would tower over the flat farmland of the area and ruin the rural approach to York with its views of the Minster.
The application shows the turbine's hub will stand at 50m above ground, slightly short of the Morrison's chimney on Foss Islands Road, while the tip of the highest blade will reach 78m when vertical, 17m higher than York Minster.
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