PLANS to build giant wind turbines on the historic Romney Marsh are to be thrust into the front line of the battle by campaigners to prevent wind farms “scarring” the countryside.

Two of Britain’s leading conservation organisations have warned that the machines would destroy endangered bird species including swans and birds of prey.

Their claims come on the eve of a public inquiry into the Kent scheme which is expected to turn into a test case for hundreds of similar developments planned across Britain.

The plans have already provoked fury among many local people and seen protests by David Bellamy, the naturalist, Michael Howard, the Tory leader, in whose constituency it lies, and Lord Deedes, the former minister and newspaper editor.

English Nature, the government’s conservation watchdog, and the independent Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) will issue their warning tomorrow — the day before the inquiry starts.

Npower Renewables, a subsidiary of RWE, the large German energy utility, wants to build about 26 giant turbines, each capable of providing power to 1,200 homes, on the coastal marsh near the Dungeness to Pett Level special protection area, which is used by thousands of wild birds to breed and feed. Each machine would be about 360ft high, nearly twice the height of Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square.

The company says the marsh is one of the best in the region for a wind farm, with studies commissioned from independent consultants showing little threat to wildlife.

This week, however, English Nature and the RSPB will release research showing that the blades will threaten a wide range of bird species, many of them already highly endangered, including Bewick’s swan, shoveler, bittern, golden plover, gadwall and hen harrier. High numbers of such species have been recorded around the proposed site because they feed on the nearby arable fields, ponds and lakes.

The conservationists are particularly concerned about the effect on swans, which are known for hitting objects such as power lines and have even been known to collide with buildings in fog. Both groups emphasise that they support the generation of electricity from renewable sources and that their opposition is because of the disproportionate effect on wildlife at this particular site.

Howard, deputy chairman of the local group opposing the development, recently attacked John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, for relaxing the planning controls on wind farms. “Labour have put the renewables sector on a collision course with local opinion. They have shifted power away from communities and put it in the hands of developers and politicians,” he said. “We are not against onshore wind power but we believe that communities must be won over, not walked over.”

Teresa Bennett, English Nature’s Kent team manager, said: “It is up to the developers to prove that there will be no risk to the thousands of birds that rely on Romney Marsh. We don’t think they have been able to demonstrate this.”

A spokesman for the RSPB said that the wind farm could destroy the 20,000-strong population of wildfowl and other birds that had been built up over years of careful land management.

Npower’s parent company RWE operates conventional power stations around Britain. Last year it earned about £87m before tax from its British operations. A spokesman said: “We have had independent consultants study this site exhaustively and they found little impact on local bird life.”

The government has set a target of obtaining 20% of Britain’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020 — compared with about 4% now. Last year Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions rose again despite Labour’s pledge to cut them by 60% by 2050.

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