Campaigns get fresh wind from turbine changes

Housing Minister Mark Prisk told MPs the coalition’s updated guidance on wind farms, designed to give communities a bigger say over where they are sited as well as extra compensation for those affected, will apply to all current planning applications – including those now being considered by planning inspectors on appeal.

The announcement has been warmly welcomed in rural communities around the region where battles are raging to prevent new wind farm applications being approved.

“We are very hopeful that the impact on our landscape will now be given proper consideration,” said Julia Hay, secretary of the No to Wolds Wind Farm group.

“In the past, the drive for renewables and the national interest has overridden everything.”

Rural east Yorkshire has become one of the country’s key battlegrounds over the development of onshore wind, with a steady stream of planning applications for wind farms over recent years.

East Riding Council has been hugely frustrated by planning inspectors who have repeatedly overturned its decisions to refuse permission for new wind farms around the area. It has spent more than £750,000 trying to defend its decisions through the appeal process, but has been overruled on nine separate occasions.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons yesterday about the Government’s policy, Mr Prisk made clear the new guidance will apply to all existing applications not yet determined.

“Where a determination has been made, there will not be a retrospective change,” Mr Prisk said. “But where an application is in the system, we expect the local planning officers and, if the case is in appeal, the inspectors themselves, to give clear and careful consideration to the issue.”

The announcement means forthcoming decisions, such as that over the controversial Thorneholme Field wind farm near Burton Agnes in east Yorkshire, will now be influenced by the Government’s determination to give extra weight to local people’s views and to the impact on the local landscape.

The six-turbine farm at Thorneholme was rejected by East Riding Council in February. The developer has appealed, and a public inquiry headed by a Government planning inspector will get underway next month.

Councillor Symon Fraser, East Riding’s cabinet member for the environment, gave the new guidance a cautious welcome.

“I welcome any moves to reinforce the strength of local decision making in the planning process,” he said. “But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

“It will be interesting to see what decisions are taken at appeal.”

Tory MPs from across rural Yorkshire were more confident, welcoming the Government’s announcement with open arms.

Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith said communities across north Yorkshire would be “delighted” by the decision.

“Today is a victory for the Conservative party, which has finally brought some sanity to a very dubious energy policy,” he said.

Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams said people in his constituency would be “thrilled”.

But green groups warned the impact on Britain’s drive to cut carbon emissions could be severe.

Nick Molho, head of energy policy at WWF-UK, said: “The Government must be careful that it doesn’t stifle the onshore wind industry, which is delivering the cheapest form of clean energy, just to placate a vocal minority.”

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