A bid to build a wind turbine on a farm in Barsham, near Beccles, has been refused on noise and visual impact grounds.

Waveney District Council's development control committee has rejected Stamford Renewables' bid to install a 125m tall wind turbine at Laurels Farm, having previously turned down an application for three there in October 2010.

The applications have caused controversy with residents' group Halt formed to fight the proposals.

A spokesman for Halt said: 'We are pleased and relieved at the decision made by the development control committee and because the decision was unanimous, with one abstention, it reinforces the strength of the case Waveney planning made.'

They added they expected an appeal to be made and are already fundraising to commission experts for a potential public inquiry.

Mike Stamford, CEO of Stamford Renewables, said that the impact of the decision would be felt by lower income families in Waveney, as he criticised the council for not supporting clean, green energy.

He said: 'Every megawatt of wind power installed in Waveney means less megawatts of gas imported at volatile global market prices.

'Imported fossil fuel energy has been the principal driver behind bigger fuel bills but home-grown wind power puts downward pressure on energy bills because it means we import less gas at volatile prices.

'The concept is very simple.'

He added: 'The UK has only two options for keeping the lights on past 2016 – imported gas and home-grown wind-power.

'While Waveney District Council continues to play King Canute with the oncoming tide of renewable energy, ordinary hard working people, struggling to get by, will be saddled with rising energy bills.'