A Mid Wales Assembly Member has criticised Welsh Government Ministers for making major changes to planning law, in relation to energy generating stations, without consultation or scrutiny.
This week, the Welsh Government brought forward secondary legislation relating to planning law which will radically restrict the power of Local Planning Authorities on planning applications in regards to energy projects.
Russell George, the Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire and Shadow Minister with responsibility for planning, criticised the proposals.
Under the law, a definition of a Development of National Significance has been set to include all energy generating stations of between 10-50 Megawatts. As such, the Welsh Government would assume the power to consider any onshore energy generation station within this range.
This is at odds with an earlier proposals; which would only have included energy generating stations of between 25-50 Megawatts.
During a Senedd debate on the issue, Russell George AM said:
“The Labour government is seeking to rip away power from Local Planning Authorities, and local communities. This is an assault on local democracy.
“I passionately believe that efforts should be made to ensure that important planning decisions are made closer to the people they represent but the Welsh Government want to centralise these important powers, denying communities a voice.
“Whilst Local Planning Authorities in England are empowered, in Wales they are being denied a say.
“In reality, local opinion will become completely irrelevant because by definition any proposal lodged with and determined by the Welsh Government will automatically be of so-called “national significance” and therefore assume a status of importance which it will be argued is in the national interest and therefore override any other local considerations. This is a charter to ensure that major developments can take place anywhere across Wales, regardless of local opposition.
“It will effectively mean that the Welsh Government will be responsible not only for setting policy on major onshore energy generation but also the decision maker on the vast majority of schemes except for single turbines. There is absolutely no way that a cluster of around 5 wind turbines, for example, can be considered “nationally important”!
“For me you don’t improve consistency and capacity by simply taking the decision making process out of the hands of elected planning authorities; all you are doing is eroding local democracy.”
The secondary legislation was debated and voted on in the Senedd this week (Tuesday 26th January). The vote was supported by Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrat AMs. Welsh Conservative AMs voted against the changes.