When the law protects developers, not our heritage

Annie Zak

On September 17, Belltown’s “Waun Maenllwyd Energy Hub” in south east Ceredigion slipped quietly into its Pre-Application Consultation. Among the glossy documents was one dry but revealing appendix: the “Secondary Consents” statement.

It showed that Scheduled Monument Consent had already been granted on September 1 for works across this upland site. In other words, permission has been given to interfere with one of Wales’s most sensitive categories of historic landscape — before the public consultation has even begun.

This raises a simple question: if a Scheduled Monument can be signed off in advance, what exactly is the point of the protections that are supposed to safeguard our heritage?

The bigger picture

What is happening at Waun Maenllwyd is not an isolated case. It is part of a carefully structured policy framework that channels large-scale energy development into Wales’s uplands and valleys. Two documents sit at the heart of this framework: the Infrastructure (Wales) Act 2024 and Future Wales 2040.

Together, they were designed to fast-track energy projects considered “strategically important.” On the surface, this may sound like pragmatic planning. But in practice, these frameworks make it extremely difficult — if not impossible — for national treasures in the care of organisations such as the National Trust to stand in the way of speculative development.

Developers have quickly learned the method: parcel projects into discrete chunks, each looking modest on its own. The public and regulators are then told to assess each fragment separately, never the bigger picture. Cumulative impacts are disguised until it is too late.

The contradiction in law

Here is where the real contradiction lies. In 2023, the Senedd passed the Historic Environment (Wales) Act, which came into effect last November. It was hailed as a landmark consolidation: for the first time, Wales would have a single, bilingual, accessible legal framework to protect scheduled monuments, listed buildings, conservation areas, and registered historic parks and gardens.

The Act promised “stronger, clearer, and more transparent protection” for the nation’s historic environment. Communities were assured that important landscapes and assets would be safe from careless or speculative harm.

Yet the experience on the ground shows otherwise. At Waun Maenllwyd, Scheduled Monument Consent has been granted as if it were a tick-box exercise. At Dolaucothi — Britain’s only known Roman gold-mining landscape — turbines and pylons are being proposed that would scar a Registered Historic Landscape of Outstanding Interest.

If the Historic Environment (Wales) Act cannot prevent this, then its protections are being fatally undermined by the very energy policies it was supposed to sit alongside.

Why this matters for Wales

This is not just about one site or one development. It is about whether legislation in Wales serves the people and the places it claims to protect, or whether it is being repurposed as a shield for speculative development.

The stakes are high:

Heritage at risk: Sites of international and national importance, including Roman remains, medieval landscapes, and registered parks, are exposed to industrialisation.

Landscape and biodiversity: Our uplands are not empty wastelands but living ecosystems, carbon stores, and cultural backdrops for communities.

Public trust: When communities see legislation used selectively — protective in theory, permissive in practice — faith in the planning system evaporates.

Duty of care: The National Trust and other guardians of heritage are being put in an impossible position, their responsibilities to protect heritage squeezed between statutory obligations and policy imperatives.

Where we go from here

Wales cannot afford to treat its historic environment as collateral damage in the race for infrastructure.

Energy policy matters — but so does cultural survival. When cumulative impacts are hidden, when protections are overridden, and when national treasures are treated as expendable, the social licence for development is lost.

If the Welsh Government is serious about protecting its historic environment, then it must:
1. Ensure that cumulative impacts are assessed honestly and transparently.
2. Stop the practice of parcelling up projects to dodge scrutiny.
3. Give the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023 real force, so that its protections cannot be bypassed by strategic policy.
4. Hold the National Trust and other custodians to account, ensuring they stand up to their duty to safeguard irreplaceable landscapes.

Wake-up call

The story of Waun Maenllwyd should be a wake-up call. It demonstrates how even the highest levels of protection can be circumvented when energy policy takes precedence over heritage. Unless we confront this contradiction head-on, Wales will continue to lose the landscapes, monuments, and cultural memory that make it unique.

Legislation is meant to defend the public good, not provide cover for speculative development. If we cannot rely on the law to protect our past, we will have little left to hand on to the future.

Annie Zak is Chair of CPRW Ceredigion Branch. She writes the ‘Not a Nimby’ blog about the impact of Net Zero on communities in rural Wales.