The Welsh Government was warned in 2005 that its plans for the development of wind farms in Wales could be “on a larger scale” than envisaged, Welsh Conservatives claimed today.
A paper written by the Forestry Commission during the development of the government’s TAN 8 policy highlighted the risk six years ago, Shadow Environment Minister and Montgomeryshire AM Russell George said.
Earlier this month the First Minister claimed developer interest had “greatly exceeded” TAN 8 limits.
Russell George AM said: “This document seems to be at odds with the Welsh Labour Government’s claims they couldn’t possibly have foreseen the scale of wind farm developments in the seven identified Strategic Search Areas.
“It seems that concerns were being raised about the Welsh Labour Government’s guidance on renewable energy, TAN 8, six years ago while it was still being developed.
“We need to hear from Carwyn Jones, the Minister who devised TAN 8, why he chose to ignore authoritative advice from the Forestry Commission.
“Ministers should come clean and accept that the scale of windfarm developments facing people in Mid Wales is a direct result of the policies they pursued in government.
“It is now apparent that from the start TAN 8 was not a robust document to provide for Wales’ future energy needs.
“TAN 8 is a flawed strategy, which is now in urgent need of a thorough cross-party review.”
