News

Weather mast linked to controversial wind farm recommended for approval

04 Aug 2026 3 minute read

A similar weather mast that has already been to test for the wind quality for the Nant Mithil Energy Park proposal. Bute Energy via PCC

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

A county’s planners are advising councillors to approve a 122.5 metre high weather mast that is associated with a controversial wind farm application.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Planning committee on Thursday, 6 August councillors will receive an application from Nant Mithil Energy Park limited for the meteorological mast at land 3.5 kilometres south east of Llanfihangel Rhydithon.

It will be the second of two applications for sites in the county for weather mast schemes that are connected with proposals for wind turbine proposals that will be debated at the meeting.

Nant Mithil Energy Park is the development vehicle for Bute Energy who want to build a wind farm with 30 turbines with a maximum height of 220 metres at the site, and this is the third weather mast application that is associated with the scheme.

Planning agent Mykena Mortimer-Davies of Turley said that the developers had: “identified the site as an optimal location for the collation of wind data for the proposed Nant Mithil Energy Park.

Ms Mortimer Davies said: “This has been underpinned by a number of operational requirements to ensure that accurate and calibrated data can be gathered to inform potential future proposal.

“The proposed development is located on semi-improved grassland avoiding more sensitive habitats.

“The development proposed is small scale and temporary in its nature.

“The site will be restored to its original use once the mast is decommissioned.”

The application has been called in front of the committee by local county councillor Ed Jones.

Cllr Jones (Powys Independent – Old Radnor) said: “Concerns have been raised in regard to access of the site and height of the mast by members of the community.”

He had been asked to do this by Llanfihangel Rhydithon Community Council held an extraordinary meeting back in February to discuss the application.

Llanfihangel Rhydithon council had raised a number of issues with the application and felt that: “aspects of the application were misleading and lacked accurate information.

“In view of this they requested the local county councillor to call in the application for more detailed scrutiny and determination.”

Senior planning officer Kate Bowen said that the development would provide “infrastructure” connected with a proposed renewable energy scheme which is supported by policies within Powys’ Local Development Plan (LDP), Planning Policy Wales (PPW) and Future Wales.

Mrs Bowen said: “Following the repositioning of the site and the submission of additional information, the concerns raised by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) have been addressed.”

She advised councillors to give the proposal “conditional consent.”

Last month it was revealed that the pause on work processing the Nant Mithil Energy Park proposal had been extended until 29 September.

The application is being dealt with by Welsh Government planning inspectors as it is classed as a Development of National Significance (DNS) and has been put on hold twice previously.

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