Fears over renewable energy target
Concerns about ‘new wave of inappropriate applications’
South Gloucestershire Council has left the district vulnerable to a new wave of damaging energy installations, according to a local councillor.
At a meeting yesterday (Monday 8th April), councillors on the authority’s Policy and Resources Committee agreed to set a local renewable energy target, but without agreeing new guidance to help planners when considering applications for renewable energy installations.
Conservative councillors tried to ensure that setting the target and agreeing the planning guidance were done at the same time, but were outvoted by Labour and LibDem councillors.
Now that the target has been agreed, there are concerns that developers will take advantage of this period of uncertainty leading up to when the new planning rules have been signed off by councillors, which might not be until next year.
Severn ward Conservative councillor Matthew Riddle is supporting residents who are fighting plans to build a wind farm in the village of Ingst, which is in the Green Belt.
He said:
“I’m disappointed with the outcome of this committee meeting and the needless uncertainty for residents that has been created.
We need to encourage more renewable energy, but it would have made more sense to have set a target at the same time as having the rules in place to say where in the district certain renewable energy installations are appropriate or not.
Now that the horse has bolted, we won’t be able to close the stable door and my fear is that not only can we expect a new wave of inappropriate applications, but we have made it much more difficult to resist the ones we know about already, such as the proposed wind farm at Ingst.
With the planned new Oldbury nuclear power station as well as energy from new the Hinckley power station being routed through a new Aust substation, there’s a real sense locally that the Severn Vale is doing all of heavy-lifting of moving to a low carbon economy.”