Planners have refused permission for two wind turbines in the green belt and accused the company behind them of creating a wind farm by stealth.

Two separate applications for 34-metre turbines on countryside near Queensbury were turned down at a meeting of the Bradford Area Planning Panel yesterday.

Both applications were made through the company Home Energy Efficiency.

One of the applications was to install a turbine on land off Brighouse and Denholme Road, Queensbury.

The other application was for a turbine at Shay Farm, off the same road, where the company already had planning permission for a shorter, 27-metre turbine, which is yet to be built. The taller turbine would have replaced it.

The meeting heard that turbines had been springing up across the area, including over the border into Calderdale, with still more having been given permission and awaiting construction.

Objector Stephen Houlden, of nearby Keelham Barn Farm, said the turbines were creating nuisance noise.

He also complained they were causing shadow flicker, an effect caused by the moving blades in bright sunlight.

He said: “The noise I liken to somebody leaving an electric cement mixer running on their drive all night long.

“Normally speaking, when you are out and about, you don’t notice it, but on a summer’s evening when you have got your windows open it is something that’s annoying.”

Agent for the applicants, Paul Bailey, said the 34-metre high turbines were quieter than the 27-metre model they already had permission to build.

He said they could also harness 330 per cent more energy and comfortably met the relevant noise requirements.

Panel members said they were concerned of the cumulative effect the turbines were having on the landscape and residents.

Committee member Councillor Malcolm Sykes said: “It’s a piecemeal approach that has been going on a while now and we have got to put a stake in the ground.

“Could we get one this month, next month, until we have a flood of them – 50 or 60?”

Committee chairman Councillor Shabir Hussain said: “I think enough is enough. You say it’s going to be quieter, it’s going to be more efficient. We haven’t got any facts. We have got nothing here. You haven’t presented anything here.

“You have got what you have. Build what you have.”