The decision comes after one local resident lodged three complaints against the company's advertising material, with the ASA upholding two of them.

It found that the company ran adverts for its West Ancroft proposal using images of turbines that were less than half the size of those planned for the scheme.

Colin Wakeling, who lodged the complaints, said: "I am pleased that the ASA has recognised that the images used by E.ON were likely to mislead the public.

"All too often, wind farm developers play down the impact of their projects on neighbouring communities and claim exaggerated benefits.
"I was surprised that a company of E.ON's size and status should have resorted to such dubious tactics."

Chairman of opposition group West Ancroft Community Action (WACA), Ian Corsie, added: "This was not a WACA complaint, but obviously the members are delighted that the ASA has upheld two of the three objections.

"Hopefully it will encourage developers to be much more honest."
He added: "In a promotional leaflet handed out at the public exhibition, you had to look very hard to tell if the picture was a 'before' or 'after' picture.

"How you can hide eight 125m structures, as were proposed then, in an open landscape is beyond me, but E.ON did. It was cynical and pathetic."
An E.ON spokesperson said: "This is the first time that we have been ruled against by the ASA.

"We had no intention to mislead people and were trying to represent how a generic wind farm would look.

"As a result of this ruling we are now reviewing our procedures going forward to ensure that this does not happen again."

The ASA adjudication states in relation to an advert in the Advertiser and a promotional postcard: "We noted the ad did not feature a specific indication that the image was intended to be a representation of the proposed site.

"However, we noted the complainant's concern that the depicted turbines were only half the size of the planned 125m turbines at West Ancroft.

"Although we noted E.ON's argument that the graphic was merely a generic image of a wind farm used for the purposes of promoting E.ON's public exhibitions on the proposed development, we considered that the image was likely to give readers an indication of the impact of the proposed wind farm development.

"Because of the disparity in size between the image and the turbines proposed for the West Ancroft site, we concluded that the ads were likely to mislead."

On the promotional leaflet, the ASA ruled: "We noted the photomontage was intended to give an impression of what the development would look like from a specific viewpoint and noted E.ON maintained that they had followed the established guidelines, in particular, those published by Scottish National Heritage (SNH).

"We noted, however, the complainant was concerned that the photomontage reduced the visual impact of the development.

"Although the ad made clear that the viewpoint was from the perspective of Bowsden village, we noted it was several kilometres from the proposed site.

"We also noted, as well as detailing technical guidelines for the production of photomontages, the SNH guidelines emphasised the importance of using viewpoints that were representative of the proposed developments impact.

"Because we understood that the proposed 125m high turbines at the West Ancroft site would be highly visible in some areas, particularly areas closer to the site than Bowsden village, and because we considered that the photomontage in the ad was not sufficiently representative of the likely visual impact in those areas, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."

However, the ASA did not uphold Mr Wakeling's third complaint, that E.ON overstated the number of homes that could be powered by energy from the proposed wind farm.

The authority ruled that E.ON had used an industry standard figure to calculate this, which alone would have been insufficient, but also included specific wind speed data that provided a 'robust estimate' of the wind conditions expected in the area.

Mr Wakeling said: "Although I am disappointed that the ASA felt unable to uphold my complaint relating to E.ON's claims for the predicted amounts of energy that might be produced at West Ancroft, I am pleased that they have recognised that an assumed load factor of 30 per cent for onshore wind turbines claimed by the British Wind Energy Association, the wind industry trade body, is not sufficient in itself to support any claims for output unless it is supported by site-specific data."

However, he added: "I am told that E.ON supplied figures to the ASA to justify their use of this assumed figure at West Ancroft. Their calculations have not been made public and have not been independently verified."

He concluded: "I hope the West Ancroft scheme will never be built, but if it is, I very much doubt whether the company's predicted output figures will ever be realised.

"This is especially the case when giant turbines are built so close to housing that they have to be run in reduced output mode to meet noise limits."