December 11, 2015
Wales

Powys Council to continue opposing Llanidloes windfarm at inquiry

By Robert Doman | County Times | 10 December 2015 | www.countytimes.co.uk

Powys County Council will maintain its objections to a controversial wind turbine application ahead of a public inquiry.

Applicants, Bryn Blaen Wind Farm Ltd, want to construct and operate six wind turbines reaching up to 100 metres high on land near Llanidloes in the face of the local authority’s concerns.

The applicant appealed against non-determination in May this year having originally submitted an application in October 2014, which would see a substation, control building and access routes also developed as well as associated works.

But people speaking against the plans at a county council planning meeting on December 3 say the proposal could devastate the landscape with potential impacts on habitats and tourism ‘under threat’.

Cllr Gwilym Williams said access roads cutting through Llanguruig to the Blaen Y Glyn site could “scar the landscape” while chief planning officer Martin Carpenter said there were “a number of concerns set out in the report”.

Planning committee members voted to maintain their objections to the proposal, citing it as being “unacceptable in landscape and visual terms” as well as having an adverse impact on the setting on sites of historic interest including the scheduled monument of Domen Glw Cairn and Pen-y-Gaer Camp Hillfort.

Members also agreed in a unanimous vote that a lack of sufficient information had been provided to allay concerns over impacts on other historic sites in the vicinity as well as on the management of public rights of way, on protected species and peatlands.

If given the go ahead at the forthcoming planning inquiry, the six turbines, all with 59m high hubs reaching up to 100m with the tips off the three pronged rotor blades would be painted off in a bid to minimise their impact on the sky line.

However, Llanidloes resident and Hafren Walkers member Gerald Clifford, speaking during the committee meeting held at the council offices in Welshpool, said he felt “a sense of anger and despair that such an industrial development would destroy the area”.

He also said wildlife would be “taken away by the development and the ambience of the moorland would be utterly changed” resulting in a “scarring of the hillside”.
A spokesman for the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, also present at the meeting, said: “The potential impact on the tourist economy would be totally unacceptable.”

The spokesman said it would also lead to the erosion of wildlife habitats, some of which include those of ospreys, red kites and newts.
Any development would also include a 25m x 10m pitch-roofed control building containing switch gear and meter room as well as a turbine control room and facilities for staff.

No date has been set yet for the public inquiry.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/12/11/powys-council-to-continue-opposing-llanidloes-windfarm-at-inquiry/