The importance of local tourism has led to Bradford Council refusing a trio of wind turbine applications proposed around the Keighley and Worth Valley areas.

Although acknowledging the potential of all three turbines to produce green energy, planning officers said they would be too harmful to the surrounding countryside, and could put off visitors from nearby towns and further afield.

A 30-metre-high turbine at Moorside Farm in Broad Head Lane, Oakworth, a 24.6-metre structure at Ryecroft Road in Harden and a 24-metre-high turbine at Tarn Lane in Laycock were all refused by planning officers within a day of each other last week.

The decisions come shortly after the government announced councils should give more weight to local objections when deciding whether to allow turbines.

The Oakworth turbine plan, whose applicant was Geoff Batley, would have been sited in the Worth and North Beck Character Area, and was refused because of the harm it could do to this landscape, famed for its links with the Bronte sisters. The decision said: “It would bring about negative visual impact from viewpoints that include publicly-accessible moorland associated with the Brontes. This has the potential to adversely affect a landscape that is internationally important in literary heritage terms, and which generates a significant amount of tourism.”

The Harden turbine, submitted by S Preston, was refused because it “would be likely to adversely affect the public enjoyment of Harden Moor”. And they argued the Laycock application, submitted by Andrew Walker, would “readily attract the eye” and spoil views of anyone visiting nearby beauty spot Keighley Tarn.

There are currently five more applications for turbines on nearby sites awaiting a council decision, and four appeals against refusals.