The start of the wind turbine exhibition at Tivetshall St Margaret.4

A campaign group has breathed a cautious sigh of relief after an application for wind turbines close to a South Norfolk village was withdrawn.

Tivetshall Action Group (TAG) had campaigned for five years against a proposal for three 140m-high turbines on the outskirts of Tivetshall St Mary, near Diss.

It welcomed the news that applicant TCI Renewables had withdrawn the application, but stressed that it would remain active just in case a revised application was re-submitted.

The group added that it would also continue to fight on against a revised proposal for three 126-metre-high turbines at Upper Vaunces Farm in the nearby village of Dickleburgh.

TAG joint chairman, Eric Kirby, said: “We’re prepared and we’re not going to disband. We’ll monitor the situation and keep our powder dry for now in case they, or someone else, comes forward again.

“We’re happy, of course - we’ve never wanted it and we’ve said for the last five years that the area is just not suited to such a large industrial development. We’ve maintained that the site and crisscrossing public paths are not conducive to industrial development and we hope they have realised that.”

Mr Kirby said the turbines would have been bigger than those recently erected at Eye.

Objections have come from people living nearby, organisations including the Norfolk Gliding Club, based at Tibenham, and English Heritage which said it had concerns about the impact on the 11th century St Mary’s Church.

Mr Kirby added: “I think we’re generally sceptical of the future in case they come back, as they have done at Vaunces Farm, but we’re momentarily relieved.”

A letter to South Norfolk Council’s planning department from TCI Renewables, dated March 1, said that, in addition to withdrawing the Tivetshall scheme, which it did not give a reason for, it also intended to submit a new application in relation to Upper Vaunces Farm in April this year.

TCI Renewables said nobody was available to comment on the reasons for the withdrawal.

The company has put forward a revised application for four wind turbines at Hempnall.