Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, has today welcomed the announcement made by the UK Government that another three onshore wind farm applications will be included in a joint public inquiry.
The five schemes to be examined – the Llanbadarn Fynydd scheme (130-250 MW), the Carnedd Wen scheme (59.5 MW) the CeltPower Limited’s Llandinam scheme (126MW), Fferm Wynt Llaithddu Cyf’s Llaithddu scheme (66.7MW) and RES UK & Ireland Limited’s Llanbrynmair scheme (100MW) – have all applied for development consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, the decision process of which lies with UK Government Ministers.
The process was triggered due to Powys County Council formally objecting to these applications, which obliged the UK Government to call a public inquiry.
Commenting, Mr. George said:
"Given the level of community opposition, I fully expected more applications to move to the public inquiry stage.
"In my view, this is another positive step forward in the campaign to stop onshore wind farm developments in Mid Wales.
This inquiry was triggered by Powys County Council rejecting all five of these applications – two in March and three in September.
"The decisions made by the Council were not just sound in principle but they also exposed in the application process, some of the poorly contrived thinking and inadequate planning that the associated developers had put forward.
"What this inquiry will do will ensure the communities who will be affected by these schemes will be able to have their say and formally lodge specific evidence which will be independently examined by the Welsh Planning Inspectorate before UK Ministers make their final decision."