Bradford on Avon water turbine plans approved

Plans for a water turbine in Bradford on Avon have been approved by Wiltshire Council.

The £360,000 project was set up by GP Rupert Gabriel, who also runs a cosmetic surgery company in Melksham.

It is expected to provide electricity to more than 80 homes in the Kingston Mills area.

Dr Gabriel said: "I'm a father and hope to be a grandfather so I'm thinking about my children and future generations."

He added: "Running the lasers which we use for medical and cosmetic treatments uses quite a lot of electricity so I was looking for something to offset that."

'Won't see anything'

He said the turbine would be different to a traditional water wheel.

"Basically it will look just like a small hut over the channel that comes off the river," he said.

"The turbine itself is like a propeller, it's under water so you won't see anything moving.

"There's only about a two metre drop so you need quite an efficient machine to make a reasonable amount of electricity out of it.

"It's very quiet, it was one of the issues we had to deal with as part of the planning."

He said it was hoped work would start before winter but some of it would have to wait until spring because of seasonal rainfall.