BLAENAU GWENT planners could be hard at work over the Christmas period producing a response to a planning application for a windfarm in the county borough.
At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Planning committee on Thursday, December 5 councillors were informed that planners expected the proposal for Abertillery windfarm to go live later this month.
German renewable energy giant RWE want to build wind turbines with a maximum height of 200 metres on land between Abertillery and Abersychan.
The site includes parts of Mynydd James and Gwastad Common and straddles the local authority boundaries of Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen county borough council.
The planning application will be dealt with by Welsh Government planning inspectors as a Development of National Significance (DNS).
This means it will be processed at Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) and a Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary will eventually announce the decision based on a recommendation by planning inspectors.
Planning development manager Steph Hopkins said: “We are waiting validation for the Abertillery windfarm DNS.
“Following consultation with PEDW, they have confirmed that it’s likely that application will be made valid by December 16.
“Officers will then start preparing the Local Impact Report (LIR).”
She added that councillors would be informed once confirmation had been received that the application had gone live.
The LIR is the council’s opportunity of feeding into the process, by explaining what they think PEDW should take careful note of when deciding the application.
This work is on top of the usual planning caseload of staff and if reports are submitted within a five week period, local authorities receive a £7,500 fee.
Blaenau Gwent has already lost one fee a couple of years ago when an DNS application went live over the Christmas period when staff were on holiday.
RWE have held three drop in exhibitions throughout the pre-application consultation period to explain their proposals to residents.
In October it was revealed that RWE had been in discussions with the council on becoming part owners of the scheme.
RWE say that the wind farm has the potential to generate power equivalent to the needs of approximately 50,000 homes.
