Consent has been given to install aviation warning lights on the three wind turbines to be built at the Lotus test track. When planning permission was granted, earlier this year, for a wind farm at the site at Hethel, South Norfolk Council's planning committee was told there was no requirement for such lights.

Consent has been given to install aviation warning lights on the three wind turbines to be built at the Lotus test track.

When planning permission was granted, earlier this year, for a wind farm at the site at Hethel, South Norfolk Council's planning committee was told there was no requirement for such lights.

Since then, the MoD has revised its policies and asked that one aviation warning light providing 25 candelas of illumination should be placed on each turbine at hub height.

Objections to the warning lights came from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (Norfolk), parish councils at Bracon Ash and Hethel, and East Carleton and Ketteringham, and eight nearby residents. It was claimed they would cause significant light pollution.

The aviation lights proposed are of the minimum strength required to be picked out by aircrew using night- vision goggles to identify structures up to five nautical miles away. The illumination produced will be much less than those used on the masts at Tacolneston or near Poringland, and the planning committee gave the go-ahead on Wednesday.