Wiltshire Coarse Tragedy - big Tory cock-up.
The Wiltshire Core Strategy was drawn up over the last three years through consultation with local people, businesses and organisations. At the last minute, after all the consultation, Wiltshire Conservatives threw in a new policy to ban windmills in the county.
Inevitably, this has thrown the whole process and a government planning inspector has asked the council to go back and consult on the changes. The council is asking the inspector how to carry out this consultation. Further comments will then be considered by the Inspector as part of the ongoing Examination in Public into the soundness of the Core Strategy. The council will publicise the details of the consultation when agreed by the Inspector.
Once the feedback has been gathered, the Wiltshire Core Strategy will be examined in public at a date and venue to be confirmed by the Inspectorate. It's likely that the anti-windmill policy will eventually be withdrawn as it potentially makes the Strategy 'unsound' but the costs of the delay and the possible harm to the planning system in Wiltshire will be huge.
Here's a comprehensive briefing from good Energy:
On June 26th, with no prior consultation, Wiltshire Council voted through an amendment to its Core Strategy Submission Document that effectively bans wind turbines from being built anywhere in Wiltshire.
This amendment to Policy 42 was made on health and safety grounds - ostensibly because of the risk of turbine blades shearing off and causing injury. It seeks to impose minimum distances between wind turbines and residential properties, up to 3km for wind turbines over 150m high.
The Wiltshire Core Strategy is the most important planning document at the county level. Work on the Core Strategy (which will replace many planning documents produced by the now defunct District Councils) started in 2009, and has been through a number of drafts and has been consulted on a number of times. The amendment to the policy on wind turbine distances was not mentioned or debated before the 26th June meeting, at which the Core Strategy Submission Document was approved by full Council.
Before the amendment, Policy 42 set out clear guidelines to protect key landscapes and monuments in Wiltshire. Although the amendment does state that shorter distances may be appropriate where there is clear public support, this still clearly contravenes national planning guidance which states that wind turbine applications should be judged on a case-by-case basis; is likely to be impractical and could prevent many worthwhile projects, such as community-owned schemes, from going ahead.
It is understood that this was the last stage in the Core Strategy submission process before the examination by a Government appointed Planning Inspector (known as Examination in Public or EiP). The Core Strategy has to comply with the National Planning Policy Framework, which has obligations regarding renewables. This states:
"To help increase the use and supply of renewable and low carbon energy, local planning authorities should recognise the responsibility on all communities to contribute to energy generation from renewable or low carbon sources. They should:
have a positive strategy to promote energy from renewable and low carbon sources;
design their policies to maximise renewable and low carbon energy development while ensuring that adverse impacts are addressed satisfactorily, including cumulative landscape and visual impacts;
consider identifying suitable areas for renewable and low carbon energy sources, and supporting infrastructure, where this would help secure the development of such sources;
support community-led initiatives for renewable and low carbon energy, including developments outside such areas being taken forward through neighbourhood planning;
identify opportunities where development can draw its energy supply from decentralised, renewable or low carbon energy supply systems and for co-locating potential heat customers and suppliers."
Separation distances:
England has no separation distance, although noise limits suggest a minimum separation distance of 350 metres for a typical wind turbine. Scotland has guidance suggesting 2km and
Wales suggests 500m between a wind turbine and housing. The Government has formally rejected the idea of a separation distance for England.
Health and Safety issues
Onshore wind is one of the safest forms of energy generation; statistics show that gas and coal generation have much worse fatality records.
Globally, in the decade from 2000 to 2010 only four members of the public were killed in wind - turbine related accidents - a parachutist, a light aircraft pilot, a road traffic accident while a turbine was being transported and a child who was playing by a residential turbine under repair.
Wiltshire's responsibility to renewable energy generation
Wiltshire's carbon emissions are 18% higher than the national average (Wiltshire Wildlife Trust report: The State of the Environment in Wiltshire);
Wiltshire contributes the second lowest level of renewable electricity of all local authority areas in the South West, contributing only 8.9% of the region's total.
Wiltshire's potential is 376MW capacity renewable energy by 2020 (Camco Wiltshire Sustainable Energy Planning Study 2011) - the two main technologies identified for achieving this are wind and biomass. Unfortunately Wiltshire's track record is one of poor performance in respect of previous targets.
The CAMCO study has identified key potential sites in Wiltshire, although this does not take into account the wind resource, which would substantially reduce the number of suitable sites.
Background to onshore wind
Nobody wants wind turbines in the wrong location but appropriately sited, particularly as part of a community initiative, they have an important role to play in a much needed renewable energy strategy for the county.
Onshore wind is the most mature and cheapest renewable technology the UK has. As a landlocked county, clearly offshore wind is not viable for Wiltshire. The UK is the windiest country in Europe, and has approximately 40% of Europe's wind resource.
The key to public acceptance is community engagement and ensuring that local people benefit from wind farms - either through shared ownership; reduced local electricity prices; or community funds (standard practice now); or all three. In the UK less than 10% of renewable energy is owned by individuals or communities, compared with over 65% in Germany, where four times as much clean power is produced and
public acceptance is much greater.
Existing renewable energy and heat installations in Wiltshire
Targets for the installed capacity of renewable energy in Wiltshire were set within the Wiltshire and Swindon Renewable Energy Action Plan 2005. The target for Wiltshire, including the administrative area of Swindon Borough Council, was for 65 to 85 MW of installed capacity to be in place by 2010. However, in January 2010, the actual installed capacity of renewable energy for Wiltshire and Swindon was only 15.30 MW which clearly falls far short of the target.
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/wiltshire-core-strategy-topic-paper-1-climate-change-2012-january.pdf
Impact on council-tax payers
If onshore wind, the most cost-effective renewable technology, is ruled out, then Wiltshire will have to meet our targets another way - which will cost more, and taxpayers will foot the bill.
Wiltshire council recently paid £600,000 of council-tax-payers money to cover their carbon emissions as part of its carbon reduction commitment. This commitment refers to emissions from Wiltshire's own operations, and so does not encompass the county-wide figures referred to above. However, Wiltshire Council could meet its commitment by building its own wind turbines as they are doing in Bristol.
Summary of local positions
Opposition to amendment:
Local groups campaigning for the environment, sustainable development, climate change and renewable energy, e.g. Wiltshire Community Wind Energy, Chippenham and Villages Environmentalists (CAVE), Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon, Melksham Energy Group, Transition Community Corsham (Transcoco), Calne Environmental Network (CEN), Sustainable
Devizes, Purton Ps & Qs, North Wilts Friends of the Earth (NWFOE), North Wiltshire Green Party, Good Energy, as well as various LibDem councillors.
Support for amendment:
Mainly Conservative councillors. There is a suggestion that the Network Against Wiltshire Sprawl (NAWS), and some other local environmental groups, will not want to challenge the amendment of the Core Strategy. e.g. the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Stop Grange Farm Wind Farm.
For further information, please contact:
Sophy Fearnley-Whittingstall, Head of Media Relations and Campaign Partnerships, Good Energy tel: 01249 767482 Mob. 07979 368238 Sophy@goodenergy.co.uk or
Mike Birkin, South West Campaigner, Friends of the Earth 0117 9420128 mike.birkin@foe.co.uk