A PUBLIC meeting is due to be held in the parish of Kelly, near Milton Abbot, next week, following the possibility that plans for two large wind turbines in the area may be submitted.

Screening opinions have been requested to West Devon Borough Council for the 50-metre high turbines at Borough Cross and Ramsdown.

The public meeting has been called in Kelly Parish Hall on Wednesday, August 24 at which members can find out more about the issue.

Milton Abbot Grouped Parish Council will also hold a meeting on Thursday, September 15, at which the developers will be present.

Warin Kelly, chairman of Kelly Parish Meeting, said: 'It's really to try and introduce the people of the parish to what's going on — they may not be aware that this application is around.

'It's not a full planning application yet, but we are trying to raise awareness and have an open meeting, so they can discuss the proposal and air their views. This will be a preliminary meeting to when the developers make their presentation to the public.' That presentation will take place at the Milton Abbot meeting.

Mr Kelly said the meetings were very much fact-finding exercises.

'If they come in with a full planning application, we need to know what the feeling of the community is,' he said.

Magnus Pahlsson, of Milton Abbot Grouped Parish Council, said at present he believed the screening opinions requested applied to one turbine at each of the sites.

He said if the turbines, which were 67 metres high including the rotors, were to be erected, they would be highly visible across a very wide area.

Cllr Pahlsson said: 'It's incredibly important that the community is aware of the ins and outs of these things and that everything is presented correctly, so people can take their own views.'

The screening opinion requests have been made by Aardvark for Enercon turbines, on land owned by Peter Hocking, of Tredown.

Mr Hocking said he had been approached by several companies regarding the possibility of erecting wind turbines on his land.

'We are quite fortunate in that we are not in the national park, or an area of outstanding natural beauty, and we have two quite large grid connections going straight through our land,' said Mr Hocking, who has already been granted planning consent for two 15-metre turbines on land elsewhere at Tredown Farm.

'I am very much in favour of renewable energy. We have seen large increases in our energy bills over the last three years, so we have been looking at solar, at bio-digesters, and wind is an option as well.'

Nick Leaney, director of Aardvark, said the company had spent the last 18 months investigating possible renewable energy sites throughout the South West on behalf of the Murex Energy company.

He said: 'At the moment we think these two sites are good, we think they represent good opportunities for wind energy and we would like to be working with the local community towards that.'

Mr Leaney said the proposals were still at a very early stage — the next would be a public consultation.

A spokesperson for West Devon Borough Council confirmed that full planning applications for the two turbines had not been received, just screening opinions, to ascertain whether an environmental impact assessment for a planning application would be required.