Policy Summary
The Ramblers’ Association Wales (RA Wales) recognises the need and supports action to reduce carbon emissions associated with climate change and other factors. This includes reducing energy consumption, improving technology, encouraging conservation and increasing the contribution to overall energy supply by a wide range of renewable technologies, as indicated in the UK 2003 Energy White Paper.
RA Wales supports policies that encourage all forms of renewable energy development in landscapes or seascapes that can accommodate its effects without detracting from visual, recreation and biodiversity qualities.
RA Wales opposes the undue emphasis upon onshore wind power in achieving the government’s renewable energy targets for 2010, when other viable, effective and less damaging solutions are available. The resulting specific and cumulative visual impacts which accelerating numbers of increasingly large turbines are having on landscapes of high recreational importance are both damaging and unjustified.
We set out a series of measures that should be adopted to ensure the expansion of renewable energy as a whole develops in line with our interests in securing and sustaining high quality accessible landscapes.
Post-TAN8
Publication in July 2005 of the Assembly Government’s Technical Advice Note (TAN8) on renewable energy, saw the designation of 7 proposed on-shore wind farm zones in Wales – the so-called Strategic Search Areas (SSA). These were drawn up through a broad-brush approach in order to secure ‘sufficient suitable land’ to meet the Assembly’s energy policy targets.
Affected local authorities then have the task of refining those SSAs to identify the most suitable locations for wind turbines. This is a most important task as the SSAs were only ever defined as indicators of suitability. All have commissioned a consultant (Arup-White) to re-study the SSAs against some criteria, including impacts to communities and visitors, from either settlements or recreational areas - including national parks, AONBS and recreational routes.
Councils can make their own planning policy position based on these studies eg. by creating Supplementary Planning Guidance on wind farm development. We believe this process should be open to public consultation.
RA Wales seeks to ensure that the protection of our fine landscapes is not compromised by industrial scale wind turbine development. It would be tragic to lose the wonderful benefits that we have gained through open access legislation to the policies of TAN8. See the ‘SPG’ link below for an example of our submission to Powys County Council in 2006.
May 2005
