August 7, 2015
Wales

Residents will have to live with ‘very unpleasant’ views of a giant wind turbine

By Strand News Agency | 6 August 2015 | www.walesonline.co.uk

Residents in a Carmarthenshire village will have to live with “very unpleasant” views of a giant wind turbine following a High Court ruling.

John Hubert has for 40 years lived in a traditional stone-built Welsh long cottage just 400 metres from the hillside where the 67-metre high turbine will rise in Wern near Pencader.

He took his case to London’s High Court after planning permission was granted to Swansea-based Seren Energy Ltd by Carmarthenshire Council.

The court heard getting the turbine and other equipment to Wern, along winding country lanes, will involve more than 100 heavy lorry movements including nine abnormally large loads.

One of the council’s own planning officers had described the visual impact of the turbine as “very unpleasant” to people living nearby.

But in a report to the council’s planning committee, the officer said Mr Hubert’s home and others in the area would not become “unattractive or unsatisfactory places in which to live”.

The range of local views enjoyed by locals would not be “solely dominated” by the turbine and the sight of it would not be “overwhelmingly unpleasant”.

Seren was first granted planning consent in September last year and, despite local objections, the council again gave its stamp of approval in January.

Mr Justice Cranston upheld the council’s decisions, subject to a requirement that the turbine takes up no more space than originally planned.

The judge said the council had properly considered the ecological and habitat impacts on the route the equipment will take on the 1.6km journey from Pencader.

He said committee members had neither misunderstood nor been misled about the harm to rural views and the “residential amenity” of locals.

Mr Hubert’s claim that planning consent should not have been granted without a full environmental impact assessment was also rejected.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/08/07/residents-will-have-to-live-with-very-unpleasant-views-of-a-giant-wind-turbine/