Guest post by Robert Owens
(where ‘saving the planet’ from climate change trumps democracy and the protection of the environment)
A brief summary of the history of this national scandal, involving the brushing aside of local democracy and the blatant flaunting of planning law:
1. In 2014 Hendy Wind Farm Ltd. applied for planning permission to construct a wind farm of 7 giant (110m) turbines at the beautiful site of Llandegley Rhos in mid-Wales, a site that includes a number of ‘scheduled ancient monuments’.
2. After much prevarication Powys County Council Planning Department ignored the overwhelming weight of evidence of harm to the landscape, heritage, tourism, amenity, etc. and, disregarding the shredding of application documents and missing environmental information, recommended approval. The Planning Committee, however, rejected that recommendation and refused to approve the development.
3. The developer then appealed the Council’s decision, resulting in an independent Planning Inspector hearing the evidence over a two week Inquiry in March 2018. In May 2018, in his carefully argued 115 page report, the Inspector again rejected the development, stating, “…the extent of harm to the landscape and historic assets leads me to conclude that the scheme fails to strike an appropriate balance between promoting renewable energy projects and protecting these interests as sought by national policy. It follows that, when taken together, the combined harm to landscape and heritage matters significantly outweigh the identified benefits.”
4. In October 2018 the Welsh Government Cabinet Minister for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths, overrode the Planning Inspector’s recommendation and approved the wind farm proposal, asserting that in her opinion the benefits of the wind farm, in particular its displacement of carbon dioxide emissions (which have been estimated to contribute at most a fifth of a billionth of a degree Centigrade to global warming mitigation in the wind farm’s lifetime – which would be 150,000 times lower than can be measured) overrode all other concerns, whether they be local democracy (the scheme was bitterly opposed by local residents), landscape despoilment or environmental or wildlife damage. Such a terrifying precedent opens the way for wind farm developers to desecrate the landscape almost at will.
5. Construction work began on 20th November and continues at breakneck speed, at nights and at weekends, with no regard for permitted hours of work. The developers have stated that they are determined to erect one turbine before the end of January in order to be eligible for government renewable energy subsidies (Renewable Obligation Certificates) that expire on 31st January 2019. In order to meet this deadline the work is being carried out without any of the pre-commencement planning conditions being discharged. These conditions are all binding and the Minister’s consent is contingent upon the conditions being satisfied in full and discharged. In other words the construction is racing ahead despite [potentially~ctm] being unlawful. When challenged on why they were not enforcing planning law and issuing a Stop Notice on the works Powys County Council (who have a vested financial interest in the development) reply that their failure to enforce planning law was ‘expedient’ (i.e. ‘convenient and practical although possibly improper or immoral.’)
6. In its latest report Powys wind farm protesters lose legal bid to stop work the BBC repeat the statement, “Hendy Wind Farm Ltd said all it had done so far was deliver machinery and carry out pre-commencement surveys.” How are we to reconcile this statement with the picture below, taken on 19th December, of the near completion of the base for the first turbine? Clearly the statement is [likely~ctm] untrue – yet the BBC have accepted it.
7. The local branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales is now seeking leave to start a Judicial Review of the Minister’s decision in a bid to have the planning permission quashed – but even if this succeeds the first turbine (at least) will be up and running (and of course not removed).
If the need for more renewable energy truly trumps all other concerns what hope is there for either local democracy or the environment?
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I’m some what lost in all those councils and Ministers. I assume they are in the executive branch of the Wales government. Can’t the people sue to halt their actions? Surely the courts would have the power to review the actions of the executive branch.
Apparently this “minister” has over-ruled and over-turned all that. Must be a large pile-O-money going into someone’s pocket.
They keep trying:
“Friday 21 December 2018
CPRW Brecon & Radnor branch were successful in gaining an Injunction against further concreting works on Monday December 17th from the Cardiff High Court. We were bitterly disappointed to see this discharged yesterday 20th December in the Birmingham Civil Justice Centre. However the ‘pour’ has now been postponed until January 3rd as the Breedon Quarry is closed.
We are actively considering issuing a Judicial Review if Powys County Council agree that the pour can proceed”
This all costs money and they have an appeal ongoing:
http://www.brecon-and-radnor-cprw.wales/?p=1311
There is a Roman fort nearby at Castell Collen with a Roman road passing over Llandegley Rhos. There is also a Iron Age fort on Llandegley Rocks (there are quite a few of them around there), and some Bronze age barrows.
Here’s a photo of one of the Bronze age standing stones nearby.
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/a558/a312/gallery/wales/powys/tnb_1.jpg
Well done Brecon and Radnor. Tacitus commented on the Silures putting up stiff opposition to the Romans, and they are still doing their best to repel the invaders. Recalling the time when BNF (British Nuclear Fuels) turned up looking for place to bury nuclear waste, I think the same solution should be tried. The rugby-playing English speaking south east joined forces with the Welsh speaking north west, and took action in the courts. The hippies did what the did best, wandered around waving banners, shouting and chanting. Maybe these and their descendants approve of this junk these days. So it could be left to the farmers again. If they found one of those white Land Rovers belonging to the BNF surveyors they blew the radiator out with a shotgun. Within a few days there were no surveyors anywhere in Europe who were game to come to Wales.
This is not threatening violence against persons. It is a cultural tradition. One of my neighbours tried to shoot down a Harrier jump jet during the Falklands War. Both barrels of a 12 gauge. They were flying over the village at chimney-pot level. They investigated but did not find out who had done it. No one dobbed him in.
On the matter of Brexit, I and most of Wales voted to join the European Community in the 70s. MUCH better than being subject to Westminster. Next time round, nearly all of Wales voted for Brexit. The Commissars in Brussels have managed to alienate everybody.
Well done Brecon and Radnor. Tacitus commented on the Silures putting up stiff opposition to the Romans, and they are still doing their best to repel the invaders.
The site of Caractacus’s last stand against Claudius’s legions was just a few miles down the road (Caer Caradoc in welsh).
“The army then marched against the Silures, a naturally fierce people and now full of confidence in the might of Caractacus, who by many an indecisive and many a successful battle had raised himself far above all the other generals of the Britons. Inferior in military strength, but deriving an advantage from the deceptiveness of the country, he at once shifted the war by a stratagem into the territory of the Ordovices, where, joined by all who dreaded peace with us, he resolved on a final struggle. He selected a position for the engagement in which advance and retreat alike would be difficult for our men and comparatively easy for his own, and then on some lofty hills, wherever their sides could be approached by a gentle slope, he piled up stones to serve as a rampart.”
Tacitus
Bulova
There are now so many layers of bureaucrats now, the lowly peasant wanting to get his/her voice heard is held down and silenced by procedures so labyrinthine, there is not a hope of finalising anything.
Even after these questions of local democratic legitimacy have passed through each and every layer of the establishment, i.e. parish council, district council, county council, regional authority, national authority, the Ministry of rural affairs after all that, the option exists to go through the legal layers, ending not at the UK supreme court/House of Lords, but of all places The European Court of Justice. Now the bad news for the objectors on this development is, the ECJ likes to say yes, to anything that destroys tradition and advances expensive inconsistent energy provision.
Welsh badgers aka miners, often undermine structures that should not be there…..
Cant believe it, BBC just announced santas dead.
The turbine only suffered minor damage and will be shredding gulls as normal within 2 days
Mangled by an in-shore 110ft wind turbine, BBC say its a blessing and will save 1.5 gigaa ton of plastic pollution and 1 giga ton of methane from half eaten mince pies.
Apparently santa was reading Trump tweets on his me-phone, and got distracted, BBC say the Russians hacked his phone and put Trump on it.
Trump said in a twit that the BBC are CNN Lite.
OK, that is a good one. On that note and a good laugh I am off to bed, got to get the turkey in early. Merry Christmas all!!
I often use Santa in relation to people who believe action should be taken based on Climate Science.
If inner-city London houses were mandated to fix special non-slip tiles to their roofs, say costing £30,000 a pop, there would be uproar. Especially if the reason was that it would prevent Santa Claus and his reindeer from slipping off and causing an accident.
The arguments for action could start with “Well, prove to me Santa doesn’t exist!”
The minute you forget the limits of your assumptions in science the moment you start to get into dangerous territory.
Where is that December 19th picture from? I don’t see it in the linked BBC article.
need to go to the Supreme court
Follow the money…that will lead to an better understanding of why people are behaving the way they are. If government officials are approving work while ignoring procedure and law, you can bet there is money involved somehow, somewhere. And people needing to be caught and sent to prison.
I for one wished I had acted against wind turbines much earlier. When I first saw them in a corn field I thought they looked futuristic. As they started multiplying onto our Texas hills in the west, I became alarmed. Now they blight large areas like warts – in fact I call them Wind-Warts. Once they are up, there is no getting them removed.
I have always been a protector of the environment – not a crazed idiot type like those attempting to protect us from CO2, but one involved in buying up land for nature preserves and caves to protect the bats. I should not have bothered – man seems intent on building bat-slicers all across the environment. They are bird-slicers as well. You talk about damage to the environment…
I have seen some of the beautiful landscapes of Great Britain, I fear they will all be covered in wind-warts as well. Its a real real tragedy – and completely unnecessary.
At last someone goes to the root cause of this fraud: the money interest behind Hendy Wind Farm Ltd.. But, connections with the minister, council members, etc will be well-hidden.
CTM,
Of interest maybe:
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2018/12/sad-news-no-more-blob.html
Also will put on Tips
I’m afraid that this is a typical example of a corrupt planning system, which is widespread throughout the UK.
Have read some real horror stories over the years of how “planning commissions” abuse people in Britain. Abuses here in the States pales in comparison.
A similar idiocy is playing out in the Dutch privince of Drenthe. Rumour has it that some locals are stocking up on explosives.
In Dutch but the pic says it all. The actiongroup against is called ‘headwinds’.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2249880-windmolenextremisme-in-drenthe-ik-hoor-dat-de-fik-erin-gaat.html
And here in the interests of balance is evidence of planning fraud, planning violation and damage to nature at a fracking site…
https://frackfreenotts.org.uk/protest-on-planning-system-fraud/
(news reports suggest that enforcement action against violations may be underway at Hendy)
Ignoring the will of the British people by the authorities exercising control over our affairs, is evidenced in many ways here in the UK.
I won’t mention the 17.4 million people who won the referendum vote to Leave the EU. The authorities in both here in the UK and the EU, don’t want to mention it either… apparently.
As I am someone, with certain cultural links to the Welsh community in the UK, I feel constantly let down by the deaf ears of the establishment, aided and abetted by the biased climate change reporting, being broadcasting constantly as balanced output by the BBC.
The French have shown the way, government ignores the will of the people burn it out.
This is the result of “world order”. Create layers of local and regional councils where grievances may be heard until ultimately, someone appointed from somewhere far far away, of the highest authority, speaks and the locals are silenced.
We Yanks were worried about the tyrrany of the majority in our beginnings. Look at us now…we are all living under the tyrrany of the minority
It seems like most of the comments here are not directed at the key issue identified in the post: the government official’s claim that this wind project was necessary due to its “displacement of carbon dioxide emissions.”
For several years I have searched high-and-low and have been unable to find a single Scientific assessment that has concluded that wind energy saves any consequential CO2. (If anyone has such an anomaly, please forward it post haste.)
In fact there have been studies that have concluded: 1) that Wind energy emits more CO2 than Gas does, and 2) that wind energy increases atmospheric temperatures.
Guest post by Robert Owens
This is doubleplus ungood speak. Robert is guilty of thoughtcrime. He will have to be unpersoned.
This article would greatly benefit from a few well-placed commas.
I guess as nobody wants to sort it out properly, best way is another good old celtic tradition.
When Bretons were recently faced with the dreaded French ECO-TAX a few years back, they popped along with a number of their trucker friends in 38T trucks, put ropes around the gantries and drove off.
Nobody was unhappy.
It was well understood a transport tax on trucks would simply be replicated in higher supermarket prices.
Not difficult logic to follow.
After a couple of weeks of these good old Celtic direct actions, the French government (under idiot “let’s run to have-a-screw-with-Julie-gayat-in-the-middle-of-the-night-on-a-scooter_HOLLANDE” abandoned the Eco taxe altogether at a cost of billions.
You can see the funny white pillars and gantries all over France like bits of the maginot line.
I don’t see the windfarms resisting a few artics for so very long once a few more Celts get their act together. The logic again is quite simple.
Putting up more of these towers simply makes the price of electricity rise.
For a good rugby playing nation I think it would be a point of national honour!
How much Semtex does it take to topple one of those?
Acetylene and oxygen, cut a few mount bolt heads and let wind do the rest. Sometimes the wind can be your friend!
The “Save the Planet” brigade is going to destroy the whole place. Stopping them will require unpleasant actions and I can’t say I see any hope of that. That six great extinction—the enviros will cause it.
This being why I own a sledge hammer, large and small star drills, an axe, a wide repertoire of demolition skills and tricks and the technical knowledge to use them efficactely.