Wind turbine development branded ‘negative’ by county planners

Elgan Hearn – Local democracy reporter

The impact of a south Wales wind turbine development would be “negative”, county planners have said.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Planning committee on Thursday, October 2, councillors were provided with an update on the proposed development to build wind turbines at Mynydd Llanhilleth.

It emerged over the summer that fresh plans to build wind turbines on upland between Abertillery and Pontypool have once again been with Welsh Government planning inspectors at PEDW (Planning and Environment Decisions Wales).

This came just over a year after the previous proposal was shelved.

The site at Mynydd Llanhilleth is mostly across the border in Torfaen County Borough – but the western part of the site is close to the villages of Llanhilleth and Bryn Ithel in Blaenau Gwent.

Turbines

Pennant Walters want to build seven wind turbines that would be 180 metres in height, and also the associated infrastructure.

The previous proposal was for eight turbines and was withdrawn by the developers in June 2024.

As the proposals is classed as a Development of National Significance (DNS) Welsh Government planning inspectors at PEDW will process the application.

PEDW will eventually recommend to Welsh Government ministers whether to approve the scheme or not.

This means that Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen will be consultees rather than decision makers,

At the meeting councillors were told that that the council had submitted its Local Impact Report (LIR) on the new proposal, which was the council’s opportunity to feed into the process, by explaining what they think planning inspectors should take careful note of when deciding the application.

Development Management Team Leader Joanne White said that that two of the seven turbines are in Blaenau Gwent.

One turbine is to be east of St Illtyd and the second to be built south west of the Pentwys quarry.

Ms White said: “The main concerns identified within the LIR are the cumulative landscape visual impact when considering this development in combination with all other DNS schemes approved or proposed.

“Concerns were also raised regarding the lack of technical information to demonstrate that both the Pentwys quarry site and the windfarm could coexist.

“Overall, our LIR summarised that the proposal would have a negative impact based on those issues.”

She told councillors that the planning inspector had paused the process until January 5.

This is because PEDW want more information from the applicant in response to a number of issues raised during the process.

These issues include landscape, visual impact, noise, biodiversity, highways public rights of way, aviation and a number of third-party objections,

Due to this, Ms White said that she expected a “full re-consultation exercise” to be carried out and the council’s response would be reported back to the committee.

Committee chairwoman, Cllr Lisa Winnett (Labour – Blaina) thanked Ms White for the “excellent report.”

“There’s substantial amount of work that goes into these that can be a bit of a headache,” said Cllr Winnett

The committee noted the report.

Pennant Walters said: “Throughout the consultation process, including the previous and current applications, the proposed development has been refined.

“It is felt that the final application represents a high-quality scheme, that can provide significant contributions to this country’s carbon reduction targets, with minimal detrimental impact to the local area.”

Pennant Walters claim the wind farm will generate 34 MW of electricity, which is enough to power 21,500 homes for a year.