PRO-WIND farm campaigners believe their case to overturn a Wiltshire Council policy has been bolstered by a court ruling.

The Wiltshire Clean Energy Alliance is against the council’s policy to have a sliding scale of separation distances between homes and wind turbines.

The policy would result in distances of 1.5km, 2km or 3km depending on the height of turbines and would ensure that much of Wiltshire’s land would be unavailable for wind farm development.

The council’s ruling Conservative group adopted the policy last June but, after an outcry by environmental campaigners, the policy will be examined during an inquiry into Wiltshire’s Core Strategy next month.

The Alliance has welcomed a ruling by a High Court judge on Monday who said Milton Keynes Council could not impose a separation distance of 1.2km between turbines and homes.

Sophy Fearnley-Whittingstall, co-ordinator of the Alliance, who lives in Calne, said: “Wiltshire is already the second-worst county in the south west when it comes to generating green power – and is missing out on jobs and other economic benefits as a result.

“We fully support planning rules that ensure wind farms are sensitively designed and located, but there is no evidence to show that buffer zones are the right way forward.”

Wiltshire Council said that as the wind farm policy is to be examined at the inquiry it would be inappropriate to comment.