THE battle to stop proposed wind turbines being put up on a hill overlooking Ramsbury took a step forward on Friday.

More than 120 people crowded into a public meeting called by the newly-formed village group opposing the scheme, called NOWT (No Wind Turbines).

There was standing room only at the meeting in the Memorial Hall even though a formal planning application for the mini wind farm has not been submitted.

The meeting heard that instead of the four turbines originally proposed by Ramsbury-based company FutureWind, only two will feature in the initial planning application when it is submitted in the next two or three weeks.

The company is proceeding with its planning application for two turbines at Darrells Farm but managing director Nick Brown had told the Gazette it was holding back on its plans for another two at Park Farm for legal reasons. District councillor Brian Twigger said he had never had such a big mailbag on a local issue as with the plans for the wind turbines at Darrells Farm and Park Farm on the escarpment overlooking Ramsbury and Axford.

Protesters say the turbines will be taller than the new Great Western Hospital building in Swindon, which is inappropriate in a nationally recognised area of outstanding natural beauty.

Friday's meeting opened with short presentations by NOWT chairman Ian Ritchie and by local representative of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Dr John Kirkman.

Afterwards Mr Ritchie said: "This was a meeting to co-ordinate opposition to the turbine plans. At the moment no planning application has gone in so we do not know exactly what is proposed.

"The parish council has promised to call a public meeting as soon as a planning application is received."

Mr Ritchie said the meeting agreed to encourage more villagers to oppose the wind farm plan and to set up a fighting fund.

There was a lot of concern, he said, about the effect on bird life with reports that there have been a large number of birds killed by the spinning turbines in other parts of the country.

Mr Ritchies said it was known that three breeding pairs of barn owls nest in the area where it is proposed to put the turbines and red kite recently reintroduced in Wiltshire are seen on top the hill.

Coun Twigger, one of Ramsbury's two district councillors, said he had to keep an open mind on the issue but was aware of the strength of feeling because of the record number of letters he has received.

He said that from the total of 900 households in Ramsbury and Axford he had received 60 letters.

He said: "It is top of everybody's agenda and everybody in Ramsbury and Axford is talking about it.

"The interest is enormous as I know from the letters I have received and I would say that 85 per cent of them are against the wind turbine proposal."

FutureWind managing director Nick Brown said he had been open about his proposals from the start.

Writing in the Ramsbury parish magazine, Mr Brown said everyone who used electricity had to accept a share of the climatic changes resulting from use of fossil fuels.

Mr Brown said: "That responsibility carries through into an equal responsibility to support the generation of renewable power, however we decide that is to be done. It is also a fact of life that the wind turbine is the best tool that we have at the moment to generate renewable energy quickly and the least expensively."

Mr Brown also revealed that at the request of Kennet District Council, FutureWind was arranging to have one of the turbines put up and working by the end of April to give local people an opportunity to judge for themselves the question of visual intrusion and noise.