May 25, 2014
Wales

Plans for Upper Pengarth wind turbine overturned

BBC News | 24 May 2014 | www.bbc.co.uk

Plans for a wind turbine at a Powys beauty spot have been overturned after a businessman challenged a council decision in the High Court.

Graham Williams, 70, who runs a horse-riding business near Hay-on-Wye, said the turbine in the Radnor Hills would damage the landscape and the economy.

He successfully challenged the Powys council decision in a judicial review at the High Court in Cardiff.

The authority has been asked to comment.

The council approved plans for a 40-metre high wind turbine in Upper Pengarth in the Radnor Hills, near the village of Clyro, last December.

But Mr Williams warned of the potentially damaging impact the construction of the turbine would have on the local landscape and economy.

Dr Justin Neal, a solicitor who represented Mr Williams, said: “When councils have to consider new applications for wind turbines, they have to look carefully at their local policies and to act consistently and with care.

“It’s all very well to say that a turbine in isolation will have a limited impact on people and the environment, but where there are a number of existing and proposed turbines in the same area, the application should be put in context. That simply did not happen here.”

Mr Williams said people visited the Radnor Hills because they were undeveloped and the scenery was “world class”.

“We are just one of dozens of very small businesses here in the hills which depend almost solely on the quality of the landscape,” he said.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/05/25/plans-for-upper-pengarth-wind-turbine-overturned/