BUTE REFUSES TO ADDRESS MAJOR PLANNING CONCERNS ABOUT NANT MITHIL

Bute’s Further Information is now open for consultation until 26/6/26 on the PEDW website.  Responses must be limited to addressing the Further Information. There is no opportunity to introduce new points about other aspects of the Application.

PEDW requested  Further Information before continuing their examination of the planning application.

BUTE’s response is in a 225 page report named Regulation 15(2) Further Information Main Response Report and 19 separate Appendices.

There is some new information among the Appendices which was lacking from the original application:

Screening for Listed Buildings

10 new viewpoint wireline visualisations

Missing forestry map

Peat depth map

Groundwater monitoring  November 2025  – Feb 2026 adjacent to SSSI

Technical Note on Hydrology of Great Rhos 

In the remainder of the response, BUTE defends the Application as submitted, dismissing requests and concerns from  PEDW, NRW, PowysCC, Bannau Brecheiniog NP, CPRW-ReThink & the general public on landscape and visual impact, ecology, hydrology, traffic residential living conditions and local communities. BUTE provides “outline” legal and regulatory compliance documents, draft planning conditions and planning policy justification to support their application as it stands.

In particular BUTE doubles down on four major concerns about the planning process:

·      refuses to expand cumulative assessment to other BUTE projects (Aberedw Hill, Bryn Gilwern, Rhiwlas and Banc Ddu)

·      refuses to include environmental assessment of GREENGEN CYMRU’S Towi-Usk export powerline

·      refuses to address the viability of the turbine transport route from either Birkenhead or Swansea 

·      insists that any further information on  protective measures can be reserved for post-consent plans covered by planning conditions

NEWS ABOUT BUTE ENERGY and GREENGEN CYMRU

In the past month Nation Cymru has published five separate articles about the finances of Bute Energy and GreenGen Cymru.  According to these, in 2025 GreenGen Cymru described Bute Energy Limited as an intermediate parent company on which it relies for financial support while Bute Energy described GreenGen Cymru as sister company and grid developer.  Both companies are under the umbrella of Scottish owned Windward Energy Group. Bute Energy has received £600 million with a further £60 million for a share option from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partnership and another £68 million from 8 Welsh council local government pension schemes.  In spite of some 25 major projects between them, only one, Twyn Hywel wind farm, has received planning consent.

Neither Bute nor GreenGen Cymru has constructed any major infrastructure projects or received any revenue.  In spite of accumulating losses, £58 million has already been distributed to directors. This was achieved by accounting and legal manoeuvres involving revaluation and sales between subsidiaries. £47.56 million went to Scottish property developer Oliver Millicam with £4.64million each to Stuart George and Lawson Steele. The three have invested heavily in Scottish property – including luxury flats, forestry and warehouses – in a “speculate-and-anchor” model transforming Welsh infrastructure risks into tangible Scottish industrial assets.

After three years as CEO of Bute Energy, Stuart George resigned to become CEO of GreenGen. This May he was replaced by previous GGC project-director, Andrew Hardcastle. Meanwhile, managing director Daryn Lucas left the company and there has been a spate of redundancies.  

Nation Cymru’s source plans to contact the Serious Fraud Office, PEDW and Insolvency Service noting that  “While communities in Mid Wales were promised modest ‘community benefit funds’ (typically in the thousands of pounds), the group’s principals were executing personal payouts in the tens of millions. This disparity represents a fundamental deviation from the ‘social licence’ ostensibly required for large-scale regional infrastructure projects.” 

Welsh Conservative Leader, Darren Millar, has already approached the Auditor General for Wales.