Cornwall councillors voted overwhelmingly to scrap the scheme by Community Windpower to erect 20, 413ft-high turbines at Davidstow in North Cornwall.
The project, which had been vociferously opposed by local people, had been approved last year subject to certain criteria being met.
But yesterday the council's strategic planning committee was told that the criteria – relating to safeguarding local bird life and concerns over interference with air traffic control systems – had not been met. They then voted 13-3 to refuse the development, with two abstentions.
Local resident Angus Lamond said the turbines would have spoilt the views around Roughtor and Brown Willy, which he described as "Cornwall's twin peaks".
"This is an excellent victory for common sense. The application was absurd from the outset," he said.
Cornwall Council's east sub-area planning committee last year rejected the proposals to build the turbines, which will reach 413ft from the base to the tip of the blades, to the south west of Davidstow Wood in North Cornwall. But the decision was reversed, subject to the conditions, by the strategic planning committee last October.
There were concerns that the turbines would interfere with air traffic control systems and also threatened the populations of several species, most notably the golden plover, in an adjoining Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is also close to the Bodmin Moor Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the North Cornwall Coast AONB and Heritage Coast.
Community Windpower said then that the wind farm would provide a significant and positive boost to renewable electricity generation in Cornwall, and community benefits of at least £150,000 per year would be available.
The company said more than £55m would be initially invested if the scheme gets the go-ahead. The scheme has been opposed by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, but the Environment Agency raised no objections and the South West Regional Development Agency backed it on energy production grounds.
Ted Venn, of the Cornish branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), welcomed the decision. "If this had been built there would have been 61 turbines to the north of Bodmin Moor and that is what people were objecting to."
A report prepared for councillors said "neither the communications issue nor the bird issue have been resolved in any satisfactory way".
Community Windpower was asked for its views on the council's decision but had not replied at time of going to press last night.
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