Controversial weather mast near rural town recommended for approval

Elgan Hearn – Local democracy reporter

A controversial proposal to build a temporary 122.5 metre high weather mast near a rural town has been recommended for approval by councilplanners.

The planning applications by Garreg Fawr Energy Park Limited for a meteorological mast and ancillary structure for a five-year period at land south of Ffynnon Ffrydyll at Merthyr Cynog will go before Powys County Council’s Planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday, July 8.

This site is 8.2km (kilometres) south west of Sennybridge and nine (9) km to the north west of Brecon.

Garreg Fawr Energy Park Limited is the development vehicle for Bute Energy for this project, and they want to eventually build 22 wind turbines with a maximum height of 220 metres at the site.

The area was represented at county council by Iain McIntosh who resigned in May following his election to the Senedd.

He had requested that the application is referred to the Planning committee for a decision.

Merthyr Cynog Community Council discussed the application at an “extraordinary” meeting in December.

The council said that a survey completed by the “majority of households” in the area indicates that 70 per cent of the residents are opposed to the Garreg Fawr project.

They also wanted to see the application decided by the Planning committee.

Documents lodged to support the application said: “The meteorological mast would provide essential data to inform the assessment of wind resources for potential renewable energy generation, supporting national and local policy objectives for renewable energy development.”

Senior planning officer Catherine James said: “There is no evidence to support the claims that the mast would have a negative impact on tourism, the photo montages submitted in support of the application show that in the locations where the mast is visible, given its design and scale the structure would not appear overbearing in massing within the landscape.

“It is considered therefore; the proposed development is in accordance with policy.”

She addressed the potential issue the mast would have to low flying aircraft.

Ms James said: “The Ministry of Defence have been consulted on the proposal and have confirmed that they have no objection, subject to the inclusion of recommended conditions relating to aviation lighting and aviation charting and safety management.”

She agreed that the condition would be included.

On the objections that have been lodged against the scheme Ms James explains that these are about the potential windfarm rather than the weather mast itself.

Ms James stressed: “This application relates solely to the meteorological mast and does not include any proposal for a windfarm.

“Officers have given significant weight to the need to support renewable energy and associated infrastructure, in line with Future Wales and PPW (Planning Policy Wales).

“Whilst some limited landscape and visual impacts have been identified, these are not considered to amount to unacceptable harm and are outweighed by the wider benefits

of facilitating renewable energy development.”

Due to this Ms James will advise councillors to approve the mast.

Garreg Fawr Energy Park is at a very early stage and is classed as Development of National Significance (DNS).

This means it would be processed by Welsh Government planning inspectors at PEDW (Planning and Environment Decisions Wales) who recommend a decision that would be announced by a Welsh Government cabinet secretary.