A POWER company claims four out of ten people support plans to build a wind farm on the County Durham border with Northumberland.

Npower held two public consultation sessions concerning its plans to build seven wind turbines at Kiln Pit Hill, near Consett.

It asked people who attended St John's Church Hall, Snods Edge, on Saturday and Shotley Bridge Village Hall on Sunday to comment on the proposal using forms.

Joanna Thompson, npower renewables' project manager, said the results showed local opinion was balanced.

She said 43 per cent of people were in support of the proposal with 13 per cent stating they were undecided, leaving 44 per cent opposed to the plan.

Ms Thompson said: "These results are encouraging, since it is nearly always the case that new developments in an area - be it a wind farm, supermarket or new road - lead to concerns from local people as to the impact they may have.

"Our experience at other wind farms has been that support for a project tends to be at its lowest during the planning stages, but that support increases where wind farms have actually been built, indicating peoples' concerns often prove to be unfounded."

If the plan goes ahead, the seven, two-megawatt turbines would generate enough electricity to power the annual needs of about 7,800 homes.

That amount of electricity could prevent the annual release of 29,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and climate change.

Steve McIntyre, of Kiln Pit Hill, who is part of a campaign to stop the proposal, said he thought more people were opposed to the turbines.

He said: "We collected at least 200 signatures from people outside the meetings and most people we spoke to seem against it.

"Maybe one in fifty people supported them, but seemed to be in a minority."

Npower has yet to submit a planning application.