Environment and Sustainability Committee
Inquiry into Energy Policy and Planning in Wales

EPP 129 – Eirwen Allen

E Mailed 21/09/11

Inquiry into Energy Policy and Planning in Wales - Consultation Process

I would like to add my name to the appeal for a total review of the energy policy in Wales and the UK.

I strongly believe that this policy is flawed for the following reasons:

The impact to the local economy has not been fully assessed and this needs to be addressed before this goes any further.   The construction of the wind farms and the associated infrastructure is going to desecrate tourism which is a major source of income for the majority of people who live in and around Mid Wales.  This in turn will lead to job losses and reduced house prices which will force families to leave the area leading to school closures and a complete break down of communities.  The wind farms and the National Grid will bring very little job opportunities for local people.  

The transportation of the turbines and infrastructure were barely mentioned in the TAN 8 policy.  The roads through Mid Wales and surrounding Counties are not capable of sustaining the impact of the enormous vehicles needed to transport huge number of turbines and infrastructure to the areas earmarked for this development.  

Have all the Emergency Services been fully involved in the consultation process?  The vehicles needed to transport the turbines and infrastructure are so enormous (5 metres wide) that they are going to completely block the roads.  How are the emergency services going to be able to reach the people who need them?  How are the Police going to cope with traffic management?  If the proposals as they seem to stand at the moment go ahead this highly dangerous and destructive process will blight people’s lives way into the future.  How can the Welsh Assembly and Westminster justify this?   

Environmental studies have not been done on the implications of TAN 8 policy.  The concrete used to install the turbines and pylons will displace rain water and cause flooding.  This will impact on bordering Counties such as Shropshire as well as Mid Wales.  Have they been considered when drawing up TAN8?      

The overall cumulative effect of the wind farms and pylon infrastructure is not considered in any of the planning policies.  The whole project is completely out of scale with the landscape.  The number and size of turbines that are being proposed is astonishing.  Large swathes of forest will have to be cut down to accommodate them.  How can this be considered a “green” solution? 

Increased health risks must also be considered.  The Draper Report talks about a substantial rise in childhood leukaemia’s near hubs, sub stations and pylons.  The noise that these huge blades cause is also a very worrying factor.  The impact on wildlife should also be fully considered.             

We now know that every one is paying more for energy than we should be due to the money being given to energy companies to invest in renewable sources of energy even though there is growing evidence from expert scientific sources that wind farms are inefficient and unreliable and just do not produce nowhere near enough energy to warrant this scale of destruction.  We also have the ridiculous situation of a Scottish wind farm being paid more than £1million to stop producing electricity (see report from The Sunday Telegraph 18/09/11).  The whole situation is bordering on madness.      

I feel strongly that there has not been a wide enough consultation given that the environmental impact will be enormous and will have a detrimental effect on the population of Mid Wales and the Shropshire border for years to come. 

Please take my objections into consideration.   

Yours sincerely

Mrs Eirwen Allen