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Council supports change on how to determine on shore wind farm applications

At a meeting yesterday (Tuesday), Denbighshire County Council supported a change to guidance for wind farm applications which had been recommended by council officers.

The report dealt with on-shore wind farms, Welsh Assembly Government’s (WAG) Technical Advice Note 8 (TAN 8) and Denbighshire’s Interim Planning Guidance (IPG).

The report recommended the deletion of the IPG for a number of reasons including a recent appeal decision and the IPG’s growing irrelevance as a result of increased WAG targets for renewable energy from wind. Members voted 31 to five (with one abstention) to delete the IPG and use TAN 8 to determine applications until new guidance is published by WAG.

Cllr Eryl Williams, Lead Member for Environment and Sustainable Development, and Cllr Paul Marfleet, Lead Member for Modernisation and Improvement, put forward an additional recommendation that a new revised Guidance should be adopted as soon as possible that includes a Commuted Sum per mega watt of wind energy created.  The recommendation was supported 39 to zero.

Cllr Hugh Evans, Leader of the Council, said, “I put forward an additional recommendation, which was unanimously supported, to write to the Minister to lobby for a broader approach to alternative energy.  We need to go further and see that any revision to TAN 8 need not look at increasing energy from wind, but needs to consider other guidance initiatives including WAG’s position on tidal, wave and solar energy as well as waste and biomass fuel.”