27 October 2023 – NOTICE OF HEARING SESSIONS
Notice has been given that Inspectors appointed by the Welsh Ministers, Siân E Worden BA DipLH MCD MRTPI and Paul Selby BEng (Hons) MSc MRTPI, will hold Hearing Sessions on:
Hearing session 1: Tuesday 21 November 2023, 10:00am
Hearing session 2: Wednesday 22 November 2023, 10:00am
Hearing session 3: Thursday 23 November 2023, 10:00am
Hearings will be held in person in the Rhondda Room at the Heritage Park Hotel, Coed Cae Road, Trehafod CF37 2NP.
The purpose of the Hearings is for the Inspector to hear evidence relating to: Character and Appearance (Hearing Session 1), Ecology, soil and groundwater (Hearing Session 2) and Planning conditions and mitigation measures (Hearing Session 3).
Please note that although the events are open to members of the public to observe, only those specifically invited by the Inspector are entitled to participate.
20 July 2023 – UPDATE ON PEDW’s DETERMINATION PERIOD
The determination period has been temporarily suspended due to a formal request under Regulation 15(2) of the DNS Regulations for further information from the Applicant.
The suspension will last for 14 weeks to allow time for the submission of additional information and to allow PEDW to undertake a 5-week publicity and consultation period in respect of the additional information.
The Applicant’s deadline for submission is 6 September and this additional information will be made available on the Planning Casework Portal under reference number ‘3280378’ on the following link: https://planningcasework.service.gov.wales
PEDW’s additional 5-week consultation is likely to take place during September/October 2023, with exact dates to be confirmed in due course. PEDW has however stated that the determination period will resume on 18 October.
May 2023 – Proposals submitted
Following the statutory consultation held from 25 October to 9 December 2022, Pennant Walters has submitted its proposals for Mynydd y Glyn Wind Farm – located to the west of Pontypridd within the administrative boundary of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council.
The responses to the early engagement and statutory consultation have been documented, considered and acted upon as appropriate by the project team, with amends made to the proposals, including:
- reducing the turbine size from 180m to 155m
- identifying a new access point and junction off the highway
- removing borrow pits to reduce potential impacts on existing habitats
- moved a turbine outside of deep peat area
- amended access tracks to limit impacts on sensitive receptors
- completed additional work in relation to dewatering to consider any potential effects on peat
- undertook a qualitative assessment of turbidity effects on water quality
- completed additional Golden Plover surveys
- made amendments to the way bat survey data is shown in accordance with comments from NRW.
The application is now with Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) where it will be considered by an Inspector before the final decision is made by Welsh Ministers.
Anyone who wishes to view the application can do so by searching reference number ‘3280378’ at https://planningcasework.service.gov.wales/. The deadline for comments is 28 June 2023.
This website includes a virtual exhibition, which provides a summary of the proposals, and downloadable drafts of all the planning documentation including the Planning Statement, the Environmental Statement (along with a Non-Technical Summary), and the Design and Access Statement.
You can also view photomontages showing how the proposed wind farm will look from selected viewpoints agreed in advance with RCTCBC.
We held public exhibitions (with the same information as the virtual exhibition) so that interested parties could discuss the proposals with members of the project team:
| 2022 Public exhibitions | |
|
Tuesday 8 November 3 – 7pm |
The Factory Jenkin Street, Porth CF39 9PP
|
| Wednesday 9 November
3 – 7pm |
St John’s Church
Graig Street, Graig, Pontypridd CF37 1NF
|
| Saturday 12 November
10am – 2pm |
Tonyrefail Community Centre
Prichard Street, Tonyrefail, CF39 8PA |
Developments of National Significance
As the proposed wind farm will generate more than 10MW of electricity it is defined as a Development of National Significance (DNS). This means that the planning application will be submitted to Planning Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) and considered by an Inspector with the final decision made by Welsh Ministers.
Although the wind farm application will ultimately be determined by Welsh Ministers, RCTCBC and the local communities are key consultees, and we are keen to hear your views on the proposals.
About Pennant Walters
The proposals are being developed by Pennant Walters, a subsidiary of Walters Group; a local company based at Hirwaun and operating nationally. Pennant Walters has developed, built and now operates six wind farms and in South Wales (on land very typical of the south Wales coalfield with both surface and underground mine features), generating a total of 127MW, making it Wales’ largest home-grown renewable energy company.
Pennant Walters is committed to informing, engaging and consulting through the design and planning process, to ensure local communities and stakeholders have an opportunity to contribute their views and help shape the proposals.
Community Benefits Fund
The communities in which our wind farms operate are important to us. We already operate a Community Fund for each of our operational wind farms (remove projects), which invests money into the local communities.
Based on 30MW of electricity generated, the fund for Mynydd y Glyn wind farm could generate £150,000 per annum for local communities, which would equate to £4.5m over the 30-year project lifetime.
We are considering several ways to administer the Fund, which would be available when the wind farm is operational, and continue to welcome views on this as we develop plans for the Fund.
Policy support
In April 2019, the Welsh Government declared a climate emergency and published its Future Wales: the national plan 2040, which was adopted at the start of 2021. The Mynydd y Glyn site lies adjacent to PAA 9, an identified Pre-Assessed Area for the provision of wind farms.
PAA 9 includes areas where onshore wind projects will be unfeasible and unviable (notably the valleys where there’s a lack of wind resource and proximity to population is a factor). The intention of the PAAs is as a starting point and, therefore, any assessment of feasibility is undertaken in the context of Policy 17 and 18 of Future Wales, as informed by more detailed consideration of constraints, including constraints not considered for the PAAs.
That the boundary of the PAA does not consider local centres of population (Tonyrefail, Trebanog and farm steads) and potential proximity issues such as noise, visual and shadow flicker. Therefore, to avoid impacts, we concluded that the site would need to extend further north than the PAA boundary to an area of higher ground and where there is potential for better wind generation.
RCTCBC aims, by 2030, to be a Carbon Neutral Council and for the County Borough to be as close as possible to Carbon Neutral by then. RCTCBC is working towards this goal through a range of means, including purchasing 100% of electricity supply from renewable energy sources, converting streetlights to LED or equivalent, installing solar panel arrays across schools and corporate buildings and installing hydrogen fuel cells in public buildings.