A PUBLIC appeal has been launched to help campaigners win the battle against a South Lakeland windfarm.

Objectors to the Old Hutton turbine plan are asking people to donate to a fighting fund so they can continue a legal challenge in the Court of Appeal.

They are seeking leave to appeal to the UK’s second highest court after the High Court rejected their call for the Armistead windfarm scheme to be scrapped.

But the legal bid could cost tens of thousands of pounds.

The unsuccessful High Court challenge was mounted by local farming couple Brian and Rebecca Barnes, who said the six-turbine Armistead scheme proposed by Banks Renewables would blight the landscape near their land, cause a noise nuisance and put their three children at risk.

But the action, backed by the Countryside Protection Consortium of South Lakes (CPCSL), was dismissed by the High Court last Friday.

Deputy Judge George Bartlett QC ruled that a planning inspector’s decision to approve the windfarm must stand, leaving the CPCSL with a £15,000 legal bill on top of the couple’s lawyers' costs.

“We are obviously shocked and devastated by the decision,” said Mr Barnes. “It is unthinkable that we may be forced to bring up our children living within a wind farm.

“Our house, which we have worked so hard for, will never be the same again. We know that such huge structures will have a completely overbearing effect on every day of our lives.”

The couple, whose Gilsmere Farm at Killington is only 105 metres away from the windfarm site at its closest boundary, are now pinning their hopes on being granted leave to appeal the decision, following a vote by the CPCSL on Monday to continue backing their legal fight.

CPCSL vice-chairman Dr Mike Hall said: 'It is a travesty of justice that local people have to sweat blood and tears to raise money to fight for what is right while companies such as Banks can just press on and charge all the costs to the business. Where is the natural justice in all that. We go on not to lose but to win.”

“We appeal to the people of South Lakeland to help us win this fight. The next phase of our fight is to apply for leave to appeal. The steps to do this are already in hand and have to be completed in the next three weeks. If that permission is granted, we can take the fight to the Court of Appeal.

“It is important for the people of this area to know that in fighting the Armistead wind farm and the adjacent Sillfield wind farm, which was mercifully turned down after a public inquiry, they have contributed thus far £63,173.

“We have no rich benefactor; This has come from the pockets of the local people. It shows just how strongly people object to this pointless destruction of the places they love. If ever there was a just cause, this is it. To go on to this next phase we will need yet more money.”

Phil Dyke, managing director of Banks Renewables, said: “We’re obviously very pleased that the High Court has chosen to back the Secretary of State’s decision to grant permission for our Armistead wind farm scheme, especially given the fact that South Lakeland Council’s planning officers originally recommended it for approval when we first put it forward for planning permission as far back as early 2008.

“We consulted widely with local communities at every stage of the planning process, gaining significant amounts of local support in the process, and it is disappointing that we have had to go to such lengths to gain approval for what we have always believed was a sound and sensible proposal.”

Donations to the Barnes’ appeal fund can be send to Mrs D M Hall, Treasurer of CPCSL, at The Old Byre, Rigmaden Court, Mansergh, Kirkby Lonsdale, LA6 2ET.