Agenda item

To consider a report by the Planning Policy Manager seeking approval for the Council’s Landscape Sensitivity to Wind Turbine Development Supplementary Planning Document

Requested officers to further review the content of the draft Supplementary Planning Document - Landscape Sensitivity to Wind Turbine Development, noted the Statement of Consultation and officer responses to the issues raised during the consultation on the draft Landscape Sensitivity to Wind Turbine Development Supplementary Planning Document and agreed that the Cumulative Landscape and Visual Impacts of Wind Turbines in Huntingdonshire be the subject of a public consultation exercise.

(Councillor G J Bull (Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Environmental Well-Being) was in attendance and spoke on this Item.)

By way of a report by the Planning Service Manager (Policy) (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Cabinet was invited to consider the content of the following documents:-

·  Proposed Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) – Landscape Sensitivity to Wind Turbine Development;

·  Draft Revised SPD: “Landscape Sensitivity to Wind Turbine Development” – Revised Statement of Consultation; and

·  Cumulative Landscape and Visual Impacts (CLVI) of Wind Turbines in Huntingdonshire.

Members were advised that the new SPD had been prepared to update, clarify and replace the existing SPD document adopted by the Council in 2006. The document reflects the publication of new policy guidance within the National Planning Policy Framework and the methodology approach undertaken to assess landscape sensitivity to wind turbine development since 2005.

With regard to the Cumulative Landscape and Visual Impacts (CLVI) report, the Planning Service Manager explained that this had been commissioned to address the concerns over the effects of wind turbines and to clarify the evidence base for the SPD.  The document detailed all operational and consented wind turbine developments in the District together with those currently awaiting determination and offered guidance on the capacity of local landscapes to accommodate further wind turbine development. In the discussions that ensued, Members’ attention was drawn to a letter from “Stop Molesworth Wind Farm Action Group” expressing support for the visual impact report as technical evidence alongside the Council’s policy. However, the Group believed that some additional work and consultation would be required to transform the proposed SPD into a document that represented the views of Huntingdonshire residents as a whole.

Members’ attention was drawn to the conclusions reached by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Environmental Well-Being) on the documents. In that respect, Members concurred with the Panel that the SPD should not include the proposed upper limit for large groups of wind turbines and that the specification of an upper limit would provide developers with an indication of the level of development they could expect to receive approval for, and in some cases, they might expect to exceed that level.  Executive Councillors referred to Table 1 of the SPD which indicated that there was, at best, moderate capacity for large groups with some of these limited to groups of 13-15. The Cabinet expressed some doubts over the capacity judgements, given that Table 6 of the CLVI revealed that some areas of the District were already reaching saturation point. Mention also was made on the fact that there appeared to be fewer wind turbine developments in neighbouring local authority areas.

Having concurred with the Panel that the CLVI should be the subject of a separate public consultation exercise as this would strengthen the SPD during any potential appeal process, the Cabinet

RESOLVED

(a)  that Officers be requested to further review the content of the draft Supplementary Planning Document  - Landscape Sensitivity to Wind Turbine Development in light of the Cabinet’s views above;

(b)  that the Statement of Consultation and Officer responses to the issues raised during consultation on the draft Landscape Sensitivity to Wind Turbine Development Supplementary Planning Document be noted; and

(c)  that the Cumulative Landscape and Visual Impacts of Wind Turbines in Huntingdonshire, appended to the report now submitted, be the subject of a public consultation exercise.