North Wales Wind Farms Connection
Enquiry
I write at the request of the Members of Llanrhaeadr yng Nghinmeirch Community Council who recently met.
The Members of the Community Council would like to voice our concerns that the Community Council was not consulted and given the right for consultation to the recent Wind Farms Planning Applications within Clocaenog Forest together with the "Cumulative Effect" to the residents of the Llanrhaeadr Community Council due to the various Wind Farms and Associated Planning Application which the Members feel is not acceptable.
Also a vast number of residents and businesses did not receive (together with the Community Council) details of the consultation process from Scottish Power either.
I shall be grateful if you would kindly acknowledge this email please.
Yours sincerely.
Mr Gwyn Davies,
Clerk to Llanrhaeadr Community Council.
Advice given
Mr Davies,
I am writing in regard to your email of complaint dated 7 February 2015 in relation to the developer?s pre-application consultation. I assume from your description that you are referring to the potential North Wales Wind Farm Connection project by SP Manweb, please do correct me if this is inaccurate. Your correspondence will be kept on file and will be made available to the decision maker during the acceptance stage of the process.
Once the application has been formally submitted to the Planning Inspectorate, a decision must be made within 28 days as to whether or not the application can be accepted for examination (known as the ?acceptance stage?). Part of this assessment will consider whether the applicant has followed the pre application procedure in accordance with chapter 2 part 5 of the Planning Act 2008 as amended (?PA 2008?).
I would suggest that you send your concerns to the developer, in line with the DCLG guidance, as the pre-application stage is the best time to influence a project through direct contact with the developer.
You may wish to also send your letter of complaint to the relevant local authorities, in this case Conwy County Borough Council and Denbighshire County Council, who can consider this information as part of their adequacy of consultation representation. An adequacy of consultation representation is a representation from a relevant local authority about whether the developer complied, in relation to a proposal, with their duties under sections 42 (duty to consult), 47 (duty to consult the local community) and 48 (duty to publicise) of the PA 2008.
I would also like to refer you to the Planning Inspectorate?s Advice Notes which can be found on the National Infrastructure Planning Portal website; I have provided links to the following Advice Notes as these may be of particular interest to you:
Advice Note 8.1: How the process works
attachment 1
Advice Note 8.2: Responding to the developer's pre-application consultation
attachment 2
I hope this information has been of use to you, please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any further questions.