Couple Sue for 380K After Being Driven out of Home by Noise from Wind Turbines
Couple sue for £380k after being driven out of home by noise from wind turbines
- By Andrew Levy
The 150-acre farm was the answer to Julian and Jane Davis's dreams of a quiet life in the country.
He would grow crops while she planned to build a wooden chalet to run reflexology, therapy and counselling sessions.
Their rural peace was shattered, however, when eight giant wind turbines were erected nearby.
Writ: Julian and Jane Davis claim they have lost everything since 320ft high turbines (top left) were built near their Lincolnshire home
Their constant roar was so bad that the couple and their 20-year-old daughter Emily say they were forced to move into a rented home five miles away.
Mr and Mrs Davis have launched a High Court writ claiming £380,000 compensation from the owners of the 320ft turbines, the builders and the landowners.
They claim the constant 66-decibel hum - close to the sound a vacuum cleaner generates - was 'unbearable' even though they wore earplugs at night and installed double glazing at the farmhouse in Deeping St Nicholas, Lincolnshire.
Menace: The couple claim the wind turbines have blighted their lives (file picture)
Mrs Davis, 54, a former nurse and midwife who survived cancer in 2001, said: 'It is no longer saleable or marketable. No one can sleep there. If we rented it out we'd probably end up being sued.'
She and her 45-year-old husband bought the farm in 1996 to grow sugar beet, rapeseed and wheat.
The turbines, on a small hill half a mile from their home, started up in the summer of 2006.
On the first night of operations, Mr Davis leapt out of bed with a torch to investigate the source of a 'pulsating beat'.
His wife added: 'The first thing I noticed was a low-pitched hum. Then it was a constant "whoomp, whoomp, whoomp".
'Different people describe the noise as a toy in a tumble dryer or a train that never arrives or a jet waiting to take off. The lack of sleep became unbearable.'
The family moved out for good in December 2006 and now pay £1,000 a month rent plus council tax and utility bills for both homes.
Their 12-page writ blames the landowners for allowing the wind farm to be installed.
They demand compensation for the lost value of their home, which they say should be worth £315,000, the costs of living elsewhere, and legal fees from three companies which built, maintain and own the wind farm.
Mrs Davis, who now campaigns against wind farms and says she knows of 15 other families who have abandoned their homes, said: 'We've lost everything.'