Lluest y Gwynt

The most recent proposal for a major wind power development is by an entity called Lluest y Gwynt Wind Farm Ltd, which is in the process of seeking permission for a site in the southern part of the Pumlumon area.  As a first step, it has applied for permission to install an anemometer at the site.

If the application proceeds, the “farm” is proposed to spread down the southern slopes of the Pumlumon massif to include Y Garn, the most southerly of Pumlumon’s tops, complete with Bronze Age Cairn. The area is designated as a Special Landscape Area in Ceredigion County Council’s Local Development Plan.  The Developer’s map of the proposed site also shows the boundary going right up to the summit of Pumlumon fawr, although the Developers assure us that they will go nowhere near the actual summit with a turbine.

Nonetheless, from the summit of Pumlumon, Cader Idris or Drygarn Fawr it would be hard to miss even a single 180m (590 feet) tall turbine sited so close to mid Wales’ highest mountain.

The Trustees estimate that the turbines will, if constructed, be visible from [Aberystwyth] on the coast to [Newtown] in the east, and from Snowdonia to Mynydd Mallaen in the South.  Over much of this area they will be the dominant visual feature in the otherwise open and uninterrupted landscape.

The proposed wind farm site also covers:

• significant blocks of the Pumlumon “Site of Special Scientific Interest” (SSSI);
• tracts of Common Land;
• a block of forest managed by Natural Resources Wales; and
• part of the largest watershed in Wales, its soils a massive sponge for both rain water and carbon.

Lluest y Gwynt Wind Farm Ltd’s literature explains that their revised proposal for the wind farm is to consist of up to 13 turbines each of which, to blade tip, may reach 180m (590 feet) into the sky. This is some 70m higher than the turbines of Mynydd y Betws wind farm above Swansea  and nearly 50m higher than the towers of the First Severn Bridge. Clearly, substantial infrastructure will need to be constructed both for the construction of such mammoth structures and to carry away the electricity generated by them.

The Local Planning Authority will not be the decision-makers for this wind farm when it applied for planning consent; they will be “statutory consultees” in the process alongside the likes of The Coal Authority and The Ministry of Defence. The decision will be made by a Welsh Government Minister having taken advice from an Inspector within the body – “Developments of National Significance”, part of Planning Inspectorate Wales.

The Trustees have written to the Council opposing the grant of planning permission for two anemometer masts proposed to be installed by way of assessment of the site conditions: view letter > 

This application was refused, but has now been reformulated and re-submitted. Lluest y Gwynt Wind Farm Ltd have in addition had a meeting with the Welsh Government, at which they protested against Ceredigion County Council’s “unhelpfulness”.

The Trustees intend to challenge any further steps taken to seek permission and are raising funds for the provision of a specialist consultant’s report to be presented at any inquiry

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Links:

• Lluest y Gwynt – official website of the development company