Groups want to stop England wind farm

LONDON, April 24 (UPI) -- A lawsuit has been filed to block a wind farm planned for central England within a mile of a historic 17th-century building, the plaintiffs said Tuesday.

The National Trust, English Heritage and the East Northamptonshire Council argue that the plan for four wind turbines was improperly approved, the Web site Planning Resource reports. The turbines would be near Lyveden New Bield in Sudborough, Northamptonshire.

The council refused approval for the wind farm last year. But a planning inspector found in March that the benefits "outweigh the less than substantial harm it would cause to the setting of designated heritage assets."

"The decision to allow a development of this size so close to one of the country's most treasured historic places is both damaging to Lyveden New Bield and could have serious implications for other heritage sites across the U.K.," Dame Fiona Reynolds, head of the National Trust, said in a statement.

Lyveden New Bield, never completed, is believed to have been intended as a "secret house" where an estate owner could live while the main house was being cleaned. It was planned by Sir Thomas Tresham, a prominent Catholic, was still unfinished when he died in 1605 and his son was jailed following the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot and died in prison in December.