SAVE RADNOR FOREST!
Protect historic Radnor Forest and our local communities from the ravages of massive and unnecessary wind farm developments and miles of pylons that are being proposed.
We urgently need funds to employ a professional planning and energy expert to help us fight these plans for the overwhelming industrialisation of our rural area.
STOP THIS MADNESS
If you are Welsh or you live in Wales, if you visit Wales or just have an interest in Wales, this film is for you.
Our Land
Cross the border from England into historic Radnorshire and you are met with a stunning upland landscape, interspersed with rural communities and small market towns. Agriculture and tourism provide a living for many of the hard-working people who call this area home. Family farms handed down through generations, favourite campsites and guest houses that visitors return to year after year.
Radnor Forest, to the east, was a Royal hunting ground, but today it is a land of hill farming and moorlands, with steep narrow valleys and hills, rising up to the highest point in Radnorshire, Rhos Fawr (660m). Today, Radnor Forest is much visited by tourists and locals alike for a wide range of outdoor pursuits; walking, running, cycling, riding, photography and birdwatching to name but a few.
The area provides vital habitats for wildlife, including rare bats and vulnerable bird populations, such as curlew and golden plover. Protected amphibian and aquatic species, like great crested newts and white-clawed crayfish are also found in protected watercourses.
Under Threat
But the future of Radnor Forest and its local communities is under threat. Property developers from Scotland have arrived, backed by offshore investors, intent on building industrial-scale wind turbines and the massive infrastructure that goes with them, for private gain.
First, Bute Energy wants to construct 31 turbines on Radnor Forest. Mostly standing over 200 metres tall, higher than the BT Tower, they would overshadow nearby villages and be visible from as far away as Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. With them would come overhead power lines, new roadways, borrow pits and a substation.
And this is just the start. Two more proposed developments added nearby plus seven existing turbines would effectively create one giant wind farm containing 72 of these mammoth turbines. This would cover 17 square miles of breathtaking Radnorshire countryside. Overhead power lines, 60 miles long through the beautiful Towy Valley would connect them to the grid in Carmarthenshire.
At this enormous scale, these plans would decimate rural communities, threaten livelihoods, kill wildlife and destroy habitats. These giant turbines are not green, they’re as unreliable as the wind and can never provide a permanent, stable source of energy.
Bute Energy claims to be ‘Making the Welsh weather work for Wales’, yet any energy it generates will go straight to the UK grid, and the number of permanent jobs that its developments might create is currently unknown. It does promise to pay community benefits, under specific headings and depending on how much electricity it generates. But as it may well intend to sell most or all of its projects at the planning consent stage, communities would be dependent on the purchasers to actually make the payments.
Our Campaign
Because this is classed as a Development of National Significance (DNS) application, the decision on whether these 65 giant turbines are built or not will be taken by a single Welsh Government Cabinet Member advised by a planning inspector. This is wholly undemocratic. There are also gaps in the data that the developer has produced. We need to put forward the strongest possible opposition, which can only be done with professional help.
We therefore need to appoint a planning and energy expert and other specialists to help us object to the Radnor Forest proposals, and then the two neighbouring ones as they come forward. This will cost many thousands of pounds.
Funding
We hope to raise at least £35,000 initially to appoint these experts and to ensure we make the strongest objections possible to Bute Energy’s plans. This will pay for help with our submission to the planning applications, plus attendance at public hearings as they arise. We will probably need more. But if anything remains, it will contribute towards fundraising to oppose other Bute Energy schemes where necessary, or to support a Judicial Review.
Thank you for your support!
Surely, we need renewable energy to help us combat climate change?
Yes, absolutely, but not at this scale and causing this level of destruction, with little or no benefit to local people. Onshore wind is the second least effective renewable energy technology, operating at only around 25% of its capacity. It’s weather dependent; without wind, turbines don’t work; too windy and they have to be turned off. Back-up supplies from more stable sources like gas are needed to keep the lights on.
In theory, Wales already has enough existing renewable energy schemes up and running or in the pipeline to meet its own energy targets and support the UK grid. We believe future wind farms should be smaller and built closer to those who need them. Building more and more industrial-scale unreliable onshore turbines, without appropriate large-scale long-term energy storage systems in place is unnecessary.
Governments should be working urgently to develop and commission other renewable technologies already available or in the pipeline, as well as providing ongoing financial support for further innovation.