The Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales has failed in its legal bid to stop a wind farm being built at Llandegley, Powys.
Campaigners have long been opposed to the development, saying it would have a negative impact on a landscape dotted with medieval and prehistoric remains.
But when the appeals process found its way to the Welsh government last year, via an planning inquiry and a report from a planning inspector, Welsh energy secretary Lesley Griffiths allowed the farm.
“I am of the view, in this case, the proposal’s contribution to renewable energy targets constitutes an exceptional circumstance for the purpose of paragraph 6.5.5 of Planning Policy Wales, particularly as the identified harm is reversible and the setting of the scheduled monuments will revert back to their present state once the scheme is decommissioned,” she said.
The Campaign for Rural Wales challenged that decision and, at a hearing before the High Court sitting in Cardiff last month, argued that the minister had misinterpreted what “exceptional circumstances” means under Welsh planning rules.
But in a ruling handed down this week, High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams disagreed.
“Was that decision irrational?” he wrote in his ruling. “I do not think it can be so categorised, even arguably. There was no dispute about the benefits of the proposal. They were set out in the inspector’s report and they are repeated at paragraphs 41 and 62 of the defendant’s decision letter.
“Whether those benefits properly constituted exceptional circumstances was, quintessentially, a matter of judgment for the decision-maker.
“It would not have surprised me if the defendant had concluded that the benefits did not amount to exceptional circumstances. After all, that is what the inspector found. However, I do not consider that there is any basis for categorising the defendant’s decision as irrational.”
The wind farm will be build by a company called Hendy Wind Farm.
The company plans to build and operate seven wind turbines with a maximum tip height of 110m (hub height 69m) together with associated consequential development on land near the A44 trunk road near Llandegley.
Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (Brecon & Radnor Branch) v Welsh Ministers
Interested parties: Powys County Council and Hendy Wind Farm Ltd
Harriet Townsend and John Fitzsimons (instructed by Richard Buxton Solicitors) appeared for the claimant
Gwion Lewis (instructed by the Government Legal Department) appeared for the defendant
The first interested party did not appear and was not represented
David Elvin QC and Heather Sargent (instructed by Aaron & Partners) appeared for the second interested party
Planning Court (Sir Wyn Williams) 18 March 2019
