HENDY WIND FARM APPEAL March 2018
Details of the Inquiry Hearing itself are as follows:
Tuesday 13th to Friday 17th and Tuesday 20th March, with a possible extra day on Wednesday 21st.
Venue: Pavillion, Spa Rd, Llandrindod Wells, LD1 5EY. (Map)
The Inspector is Hywel Wyn Jones.
You can view all CPRW Brecon & Radnor Branch submissions via this link.
The Appeal website is found on this link. All evidence documents submitted by the developers, Powys and ourselves will be uploaded to this site.
Please Help Save Historic Llandegley Rhos from Giant Turbines
Just when we were celebrating the change in direction with the latest draft Local Development Plan, which has abandoned the extensive Local Search Areas for Wind Energy covering our Powys uplands and reduced the overall target for new Powys RE from 600Mw to 60Mw…
We have the fight of our life on our hands.
In April this year, HENDY WIND FARM, with 7 turbines 110 metres high (much taller than Big Ben’s 96m) on Llandegley Rhos beside the historic Llandegley Rocks, was recommended for approval by Powys County Council (PCC) in spite of hundreds of objections from the public. However, after their site visit to this beautiful landscape with its ancient hill forts, PCC Planning Committee roundly voted 11 to 1 against the wind farm proposal and so permission was refused.
The developer is now appealing on the grounds that the national interest in renewable energy should trump negative impacts on local landscape and historic culture. This is a ‘test case’. If the Welsh Planning Inspector approves this development, it will be used as a precedent by other developers and decision makers and, in the future, no Local Authority will want to risk refusing permission for any wind farm proposal on Welsh uplands. Powys intends to defend their refusal but, given their original recommendation to the Planning Committee to approve the development, we cannot be confident as to the outcome.
We cannot afford to lose this fight. CPRW has therefore got permission to participate in the Planning Inquiry, in order to support Powys in their refusal of this Appeal. We have a good chance but this is a formal process, much like a court case, and we need the right professional help. We urgently seek help to fund a professional landscape assessment and an expert barrister. We are lucky to have the same team who have been helping us with the Local Development Plan to present the case but there is a lot of work involved. We will have to raise in excess of £30,000!!
So PLEASE don’t let them destroy this landscape. Don’t let them turn this…
Into this…
(We have a small photo gallery of the Landegley Rhos area here.)
(We also have gallery of a recent – January 2018 – Murmuration of Starlings at the proposed site here.)
How you can help:
Appeal Account Details: EVERY LITTLE HELPS!
B&R Branch CPRW AC 29455868 Lloyds Bank SC 30-94-99
CPRW Is a Registered Charity No 239899 – If you are a UK taxpayer, please consider filling out the gift aid form HERE. This will add 25% to your donation at no cost to you.
If paying by cheque, please make it out to “CPRW – Brecon & Radnor”. Cheques and gift aid forms should be sent to Ann Payne, Glanffrwd, Llanfihangel Talyllin, Brecon, LD3 7TL.
GIFT AID FORM AVAILABLE HERE
Thank you.
HENDY WIND FARM APPEAL
APP/T6850/A/17/3176128: LAND OFF A44, SW OF LLANDEGLEY, LD1 5UG
The Appeal Process started on 16/8/2017. Submission of documents will be followed by a formal Inquiry over several days. The date of the Inquiry will be announced soon.
The Inspector’s time table & the Developer’s documents are already available. Previous public objections to Powys County Council and all other submissions for the case will also be posted on The Inspector’s Website (including a Non-Technical Summary in APP021).
Please help defend Powys refusal by making an OBJECTION to the Inspector.
The strict deadline for public objections is Wednesday 27th September
THE CASES FOR AND AGAINST HENDY WIND FARM
The Developer’s Case for Hendy Wind Farm (APP002 – Inspector’s appeal website)
- Policy support for and benefits of renewable energy.
- Local economic advantage (as argued in APP021 Chapter 6).
Powys CC defence of their refusal of permission for Hendy Wind Farm (APP003)
- Unacceptable landscape and visual impacts
- Unacceptable impacts on users of important rights of way and open access land
- Unacceptable impacts on scheduled archaeological sites, including Llandegley Rocks hill fort, Nant Brook Enclosure, Graig Camp, Crug Ryr Mound and Bailey Castle.
HOW TO MAKE AN OBJECTION
Who can object?
- Anyone who can contribute to the Inspector’s decision. Objections from local people with knowledge of the area are particularly important.
How to send objection
- Use the online submission facility on the Inspectorate’s website below
- Email wales@pins.gsi.gov.uk “For attention of Rhys Rigby”
- Post to Rhys Rigby, The Planning Inspectorate, Crown Buildings, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.
Your objection must:
- quote the reference “Planning Inspectorate APP/T6850/A/17/3176128: Land off A44, SW of Llandegley, LD1 5UG”
- clearly state your name and address
- say that you oppose the appeal proposals and give your reasons for doing so.
Making your objection:
- You may want to comment on the Developer’s case or Powys’ case but you can also introduce new reasons to support the refusal of this application, for instance:
- Impacts on tourism business
- Impacts on ecology
- Impacts on hydrology
- Impacts on residents.
- Your objection must be a reasonable argument based on factors such as local knowledge about impacts, your own experience, published evidence or significant flaws in the Developer’s arguments, or information in the Environmental Statement and other documents. These could include factual errors or important omissions, or overestimation of benefits and underestimation of harm.
- If you have already objected to Powys, you can refer to your previous objection but you must use new arguments rather than repeating previous ones. All previous objections will eventually be put on the Inspector’s website.
- You may add supporting documents.
- Your representation will be forwarded to the main parties. You may ask for your name and address to be withheld but this may affect the weight the Inspector gives to your representation.
GUIDE TO TAKING PART IN APPEALS IN WALES: LINK, Page 5 gives advice on format etc.
POWYS COUNTY COUNCIL PLANNING WEBSITE Ref. P/2014/0672 LINK has all the Hendy documents submitted to Powys before their decision to refuse.
PLEASE NOTE: CPRW acknowledges the consequences of climate change and recognises the national and international importance of renewable energy. Powys is already exporting huge amounts from wind installations in the nationally established Strategic Search Areas in the Radnor Hills and Cambrian Mountains. Also 20 Local Search Areas for large-scale solar energy are still proposed in the emerging Local Development Plan. It is reasonable to expect countryside outside these search areas to remain free from large-scale energy development. We are just asking for some common sense about preserving our beautiful hills and rich heritage to prevail.
Please also note that the photomontage shown above and on the photo gallery page of Llandegly Rhos with the wind turbines has been prepared by CPRW B&R Branch in good faith, and we have done our utmost to present a fair and accurate view of the impact of the 7 proposed wind turbines in the landscape.
(We have a small photo gallery of the Landegley Rhos area here.)
