AN URGENT APPEAL TO EVERYONE IN POWYS
DO YOU LOVE POWYS’S WILD HILLTOPS?
Well, the
fight is on. Our Welsh Government has decided that Powys, the green heart of Wales Cardiff Bay
Take a
last look at our historic landscapes, at the wide views, barely changed for
thousands of years. It’s goodbye to Abergwesyn Common, goodbye the Begwns,
goodbye Pant-y-Llin Hill, Merthyr Cynog, Drum Ddu, the hills around Llandegley
and Abbey-cwm-hir, Hirnant... Designated now as ‘Local Search Areas’ for wind
development. Not angry yet? Well, that’s not all, whole sweeps of hills are
also to be given over to solar ‘parks’, and solar Local Search Areas reach from
one side of the county to the other below Newtown. Nantmel, Llanbister, Aberedw
will be encircled, huge swathes of hillside to the north of Brecon will glitter
with hundreds of acres of industrial scale solar panels... And once these areas
are designated for electricity generation be sure it will come - do you think
Powys Council will vigorously protect your interests when the developers move
in? Are they fighting this now?
So,
welcome to the brave new world where the sound of birds is replaced by the
thunk of turbines, our quiet roads widened and straightened to take convoys of
abnormal load lorries, tracks across our peat hilltops, turbines to within 500
metres of our front doors, marches of pylons. Goodbye too to our beleaguered
wildlife, to our clean waters, our quiet communities… really to just about
everything which makes Powys a place in which people wish to live. While the
rest of the world is waking up fast to the futility and pointless duplicated
expense of placing intermittent energy sources on the grid, to the real harms
caused to people, wildlife and the environment by these technologies, our government
clings stubbornly to outworn ideas, as it clings too to the myth that these
technologies genuinely reduce carbon emissions.
If the
idea alone weren’t bad enough, the execution is a travesty of democratic
processes. Impacts of this policy, only introduced in the current iteration of
the Local Development Plan, have not been considered. We have not been consulted
about this radical proposal, which will change the county for ever, at earlier
stages in the convoluted saga of the evolution of our LDP, but we
can and we must make our voices heard now. Before it really is too late.
What we are asking YOU to do
Respond to the Consultation either by
letter or via the internet:
o Letter. Quote the “Renewable Energy
policy RE1, and Local Search Areas” and include reference FFC79
and post
to: Powys LDP Team, Planning Policy, Powys
County
LD1 6AA.
o Internet. Use the “October 2016
Further Focussed Changes form” (link on our website): To have your say
on the
Authority’s Renewable Energy policy RE1, including the LSAs, quote FFC79 in box 3b
‘go for
it’ in box 3c
See the Brecon and Radnor CPRW
website http://www.brecon-and-radnor-cprw.wales/?page_id=283 for more
information,
links to documents and for briefing notes to help you with responses
Write to your Local Councillors,
especially your County
Councillor
Write to your Assembly Member
Send this to other Powys residents.
YOUR RESPONSE MUST BE IN BEFORE CONSULTATION CLOSES
AT 5.00PM ON 21ST NOVEMBER.
Thank you
for your help,
Peter
Seaman MBE, Chair, Brecon & Radnor Branch, Campaign for the Protection of
Rural Wales
Registered
charity number 239899
Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales
Brecon & Radnor Branch
Brynhyfryd, Scethrog, Brecon , LD3
7EQ
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