EXCLUSIVE by Karen Evans
Residents along the Mid Wales border opposed to a controversial windfarm are being urged to write to the Government requesting that the planning application be called in.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, will decide whether to call in the Reeves Hill windfarm application near Knighton, after she intervened at the last minute in Herefordshire Council’s planning meeting last Thursday.
She issued a directive which prevented Herefordshire Council from issuing planning permission, even though their members had voted 12 to seven in favour of the development.
Now the Stonewall Hill Conservation Group and the Offa’s Dyke Association are urging local residents to write to Ms Blears and urge her to call in the application and force a public inquiry so all issues can be debated properly infront of an independent inspector.
They claim Herefordshire Council’s decision was un-sound because it went against many of the council’s own Unitary Development Plan policies concerning landscape, cultural heritage and the impact on amenity.
Chairman of the Stone-wall Hill Conservation Group, Dr Stephen Hugh-Jones said: “It is of far more than local importance be-cause of the cross border issues. Powys County Council and Cadw are strongly opposed. Also, many more people are going to be affected in Powys and they have been disenfranchised by Herefordshire Council which has ignored their views.
“We are appalled by the way Herefordshire Council has handled this case. No meetings were arranged with local groups, for example. Relevant facts and information sent to the council has consistently been ig-nored. There has been no dialogue with the local community at all.
“Herefordshire Council took the developer’s flawed Environmental Statement at face value. Even the consultancy firm they engaged to review the ES (Enviros – a consultancy specialising in promoting wind farms, so hardly independent) found omissions.
“The Planning Officer’s report was biased and shot through with factual errors.
