Welsh Conservatives will this week step up calls for a thorough review of the Welsh Labour Government’s renewable energy guidance, TAN 8.
In a debate in the National Assembly tomorrow, Welsh Conservatives will call on Carwyn Jones to take responsibility for the TAN 8 guidance he drew up and promised to review when he was Environment Minister.
In recent days Welsh Labour Ministers have rowed back from their own guidance, which strongly supports the construction of new pylons and electricity sub-stations to service windfarm developments.
Last week the First Minister said that “developer interest has now greatly exceeded” the capacity of the seven nominated areas for windfarm development, but failed to acknowledge that Ministers were aware of this in July 2010.
A research document prepared for Ministers showed that the TAN 8 capacities for windfarms were dwarfed by the total planning applications and interest from developers.
Russell George AM, Shadow Minister for the Environment, said, “While we greatly welcome the First Minister’s decision to change his mind on windfarm developments we cannot allow him to rewrite history.
“It is the Welsh Labour Government’s own flawed guidance which has actively encouraged applications to develop windfarms in Mid Wales, bringing the prospect of over-development.
“The First Minister knew a year ago that planning applications received and interest in windfarm developments greatly exceeded the capacity of the sites, but unfortunately he failed to take the initiative.
“The Welsh Labour Government is now rowing back from its previous ‘strong support’ for the development of pylons and electricity sub-stations associated with such major windfarm developments.
“Instead of trying to distance himself from his own planning guidance, the First Minister should admit that TAN 8 is a flawed document, which needs a thorough review.
“Welsh Conservatives will call for a moratorium on further windfarm development until we have an urgent open consultation with the public on the future of the Government’s defective guidance, which is leading to overdevelopment in rural Wales.”
