News

Residents furious at wind turbine ruling

Published

10 years ago

March 28, 2014

A JUDICIAL REVIEW challenge against a decision by Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning committee to grant permission for two wind turbines to be built at Princes Gate has been lost by campaigners.

Objectors mounted the legal challenge last year on two grounds.

They claimed that the officer’s report to the committee was flawed as it did not find the proposal contrary to the Local Development Plan. They also claimed that the Environmental Impact Assessment Screening Opinion was defective.

However, at the High Court in Cardiff last week, Judge Hickinbottom backed the Council’s handling of the application. Dismissing the first ground Judge Hickinbottom noted that in assessing the potential impact on the historic environment, the Committee report had been prepared with “patent care” and that it weighed and balanced the competing policies within the Plan.

He also dismissed the second ground.

In refusing the claim, the Judge made an order of costs in favour of the Council and refused the claimants leave to appeal. Princes Gate Spring Water applied for permission to build two 800kw wind turbines at Middleton Top near Ludchurch.

The Planning Committee agreed to the development in May last year on the basis that the benefits in terms of the contribution to the generation of renewable energy outweighed any adverse impacts. Local residents now say they are devastated to lose their long and costly battle. They say that homes only 400m from the site will have direct views of the turbines from their living rooms, bedrooms and amenity areas.

One campaigner told The Herald: “Residents” amenity is so severely compromised that at least one house will have wind turbines from this and other sites in view from every window and every aspect of the house and garden.”

“The turbines will dominate residents’ lives. Residents had previously supported Princes Gate Spring Water and their investment in renewable energy and requested that they locate their turbines on ground they own, adjacent to their water bottling plant.”

“The only response from the planners was to pretend that residents wanted the turbines in the factory car park.”

Dave and Isabel Scourfield, of the Belle Vue Equestrian Centre, say they are devastated. They have already seen their specialist equestrian insurance withdrawn when the insurers saw how close the turbines would be to their horses. They have tried to habituate their highly strung competition horses to wind turbines but failed, leaving their horses disturbed and frightened and their riders in danger. Horses from this small centre have previously enjoyed national and international success. As the turbines will overlook their entire holding, and are located only 200m from fields in which they break in and train them, their business is now in jeopardy.

Local campaigner Mary Sinclair said: “The developers themselves highlighted the extent of the shadow impact from the blades on Belle Vue fields and explained the special problems that moving shadows on the ground cause to horses. Yet the Planning Authority has set no condition to protect the Centre, nor was any background noise monitoring undertaken there, nor at any other home directly affected by the development.”

She added: “Councillor Tony Brinsden, when addressing the planning committee told councillors bluntly, before the Council’s Legal Officer ordered him to stop, that he ‘did not think it was the job of Pembrokeshire County Council planning department to wipe out people’s businesses’. But apparently, if in doing so it promotes someone else’s business, it is.”

News

Welsh Lib Dems urge First Minister to return dodgy donation

Published

14 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THIS week in the Senedd, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have urged the First Minister to return the £200,000 donation he received from a company linked to environmental crimes.

Speaking to the Senedd on Wednesday, party leader Jane Dodds MS urged FM Vaughan Gething to return money donated to his campaign by Dauson Environmental, a refuse and recycling business owned by David John Neal.

Mr Neal received a 3-month suspended prison sentence in 2013 for illegally dumping waste at a conservation site on the Gwent levels.

His companies Atlantic Recycling and Neal Soil Suppliers were also prosecuted and given fines and costs of £202,000.

Then in 2017, Mr Neal was given another suspended sentence of 18 weeks, with fines and costs of £230,000 after failing to remove the waste.

The Welsh Lib Dems have called on the FM to return the donation, as part of wider calls for a shift away from the influence of “big money” in Welsh politics.

Commenting, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said:

“This entire episode has casted a dark shadow upon Welsh democracy and has rightfully led to many questioning the integrity of Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign and the way our democracy works here in Wales.

Unfortunately for many of us this is hardly surprising, as our political system has been broken for quite some time now.

A system that empowers the elite donor class whilst simultaneously shutting out the voice of the voter is a perversion of democracy itself.

This is why our wider goal must be to remove the influence of ‘big money’ from Welsh politics once and for all.

We cannot have another government that prioritises the interests of its financial benefactors over those of the Welsh people.

We need to take a firm stance in rooting out the influence of cash in Welsh politics, for the sake of our communities we must start prioritising their interests and needs instead of having more self-serving politicians.”

News

Council seeking legal advice to address Withyhedge enforcement

Published

14 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

PEMBROKESHIRE County Council says it has sought legal advice and is contemplating legal proceedings against Withyhedge Landfill operators RML, in regards to the ongoing odour issues at the site.

The Council intends to ask the Court for an injunction requiring RML to abate the public nuisance odour arising from the landfill. Failure to comply with the injunction would be contempt of court, which carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and unlimited fine.

Following significant work undertaken by RML the Authority is disappointed that the problem has not been resolved and residents continue to be impacted by the odour.

Working in collaboration with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Public Health Wales (PHW), we fully appreciate that the communities affected cannot tolerate this any longer.

NRW announced that the first set of deadlines for the completion of actions to tackle the ongoing odour issues at Withyhedge Landfill have been met, one week on following the issuing of further enforcement action on 18th April.

This will be closely monitored by NRW to ensure the operator complies with all the actions set out in Notice by 14 May.

It was deemed appropriate to wait until the operator had carried out mitigation to comply with the enforcement requirements by NRW prior to considering this additional action.

To that end, on 26th April 2024, the Council served RML with a letter of claim and invited them to give legally binding undertakings to abate the odour nuisance or face legal proceedings. The Council also asked for disclosure of documents relevant to the proceedings, including records of waste brought in or removed from the landfill.

The Council has given RML until 14th May 2024 to respond to its letter of claim. This aligns with the current deadline set by NRW under its enforcement notice.

Pembrokeshire County Council Chief Executive Will Bramble welcomed the move. He said: “We are extremely disappointed that RML has not delivered the necessary action to stop the completely unacceptable smells from the site.

“We fully support the additional enforcement action being taken by NRW and continue to work closely with them to do all in our power to correct the situation.

“Our intention to ask the Court for an injunction requiring RML to stop the odour nuisance arising from the landfill, is another part of our collaborative approach. The smell from Withyhedge is having a major impact on residents and visitors. This situation has gone on too long and it is unacceptable.”

News

Beautiful, funny and lovely: Family pay tribute to Sian Batchelor

Published

17 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE family of a woman has paid tribute to a “beautiful, funny, lovely person.”

Sian Batchelor, aged 32, was found on a beach near Pennar, Pembroke Dock on Tuesday evening, April 30^th, 2024.

Her family has issued a statement to say: ‘We are devastated by our loss. Sian was a beautiful, funny, loving person. We will treasure the good times we had with her.

“We would now like time to grieve and would ask to be given privacy in which to do so.”

The circumstances surrounding Sian’s death are being investigated and police would like to hear from anyone with information, sightings of Sian or contact from Sian, between Thursday April 25 to Tuesday April 30.

Police can be contacted either online at: https://bit.ly/DPPContactOnline, by emailing [email protected], or by calling 101. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired text the non-emergency number on 07811 311 908.

Quote reference: DP-20240430-284