A PROPOSAL for West Devon?s first windfarm was thrown out this week after planners unanimously refused to support siting it less than two miles from a national landmark.

The two turbines at Lamerton would be seen from Dartmoor National Park, the Tamar Valley of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Grade II listed Brentor Church, in a landscape described as ?sacrosanct.?

West Devon Borough Council?s chief planning officer Stephen Gill told the applicants Carol and Robert Bradford they could not have picked a more sensitive location in the borough.

But the Bradfords, spurred on by 118 letters of support for their application and Central Government pressure for renewable energy schemes, have vowed to appeal against the decision.

At a meeting of the borough council?s planning committee on Tuesday attended by many supporters and opponents of the project, local resident Roger Young described how these 230ft structures with ?blades the size of Boeing 747 wings would spoil this beautifully landscaped valley?.

?The height may have been reduced by 11 metres from the previous application but the impact on the area will not be reduced,? he said. ? The site has simply been chosen because the applicants own it not because it is appropriate and there is no evidence of the windspeeds that would be generated.?

The committee was told by planning officers that the site at Beech Farm fell outside the search area identified by Devon County Council for wind turbines and any environmental benefits were, in their opinion, outweighed by the visual considerations. Some 106 letters of objection were sent to the authority.

Stephen Gill said this was not a debate for or against windfarms: ?The borough council very much supports renewable energy projects and has policies to encourage such development but not within very sensitive landscapes.

?Even if the turbines did not have an impact on Dartmoor National Park they would on the national landmark that is Brentor Church.

?They are other locations in the borough were this would have been more warmly received.?

Carol Bradford said the visual impact would be ?minimal? and the site was 1.5 miles within an area with no landscape classification.

She said by refusing the application, the committee would be creating a buffer zone around a designated area which was against county and national planning policies relating to windfarms.

?The turbines would be managed under a co-operative resulting in community involvement, job opportunities and local financial gain,? added Mrs Bradford.

?Devon?s renewable energy target is for 151 megawatts to be produced by 2010 ? Devon has the best wind resource in Europe yet not one megawatt is produced from commercial wind turbines.?

Cllr Jane Waterhouse said she did not find windfarms to be at all obtrusive in the natural environment and supported generating energy without depleting the world?s resources.

?Anywhere but in this landscape I would have argued for acceptance but here it would be inappropriate because of the fact of the other manmade structure that is Brentor Church,? she said. ?I support the officers recommendation with a very heavy heart and look forward to approving an army of wind turbines coming over the horizon.?

Chairman of the committee Roger Mathew, who admitted he would happily have a wind turbine in his back garden, apologised to the applicants for the outcome but said it could not have been unexpected.

Whilst Cornwall has seven windfarms, Devon presently has none although two three-turbine schemes in Bradworthy and Torrington have been approved on appeal to the Planning Inspectorate after being refused by Torridge District Council.