CAMPAIGNERS are cranking up opposition to plans for a wind farm on moors north of Bury with a public meeting in Ramsbottom next week.

Proposals would see 26 giant turbines, each reaching a height of 327ft, built east of Edenfield on Scout Moor.

The development, proposed by property firm Peel Holdings and electricity generators United Utilities, is aimed at meeting Government carbon dioxide emission targets.

Opponents of the development, which would be the largest currently operating in England, say the windmills would wreck views, damage property prices and create a host of new environmental problems.

A public meeting attracting around 80 people was held in Edenfield last week, at which organisers gauged strong opposition to the plan.

Campaigners have embarked upon a leaflet and poster campaign in Ramsbottom town centre and are holding a meeting next Wednesday at the Grant Arms Hotel.(Aug 6)

They want individuals to write letters to MPs, planning departments and the Department of Trade and Industry, which will decide upon the application.

Bury Council is not an official consultee for the plan, situated within the Rossendale and Rochdale boundaries, and Ramsbottom campaigners say residents have not been adequately informed.

Kay Brow resident Ian Price said: "We are just trying to get everybody aware that there is an issue that they could really do with finding out about before it is too late and they are looking up at these monsters.

"It is going to be more visible from Ramsbottom than almost anywhere else and when we tell people about turbines two or three times higher than Peel Tower, they are aghast.

"On an environmental basis we do not believe that the benefits of these things stack up, especially when the emissions created by their manufacture and transport all the way from Germany are taken into account."

Bury's Liberal Democrat group have voiced their opposition to the scale of the development wind farm.

Group leader Vic D'Albert said: "These turbines will be two thirds the height of Blackpool Tower.

"A proposal of this scale should only go ahead following a thorough consultation and only then if the proposals regarding the number, size and location of these turbines had been fully justified."

The meeting begins at 7.30pm.