Strategic windfarm area (updated )

New planning guidance published by the Welsh Assembly Government suggests that the bulk of the Rhondda constituency now lies outside the areas drawn up for windfarm development.

Last summer, the Assembly Government suggested a number of areas in Wales which might be strategic areas for windfarm developments. One of these areas, called the Glyncorrwg strategic area, included most of the Upper Rhondda Fach and Treorchy, Cwmparc, Treherbert and Clydach Vale in the Rhondda Fawr. (see map at: www.wales.gov.uk/subiplanning/content/tans/tan08/map6-e.pdf )

I took the issue up and made submissions to Environment Minister Carwyn Jones, arguing for the exclusion of the Rhondda as a site of historic interest.

I said in my letter to Carwyn Jones:

If the basis for the exemption is that wind turbines would spoil the beauty of an area then clearly this test must be applied to all highly scenic places. The Rhondda has of course been designated as a Landscape of Special Historic Interest by CADW, the CCW and ICOMOS in their Register of Landscapes of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

The new map appears to be better. I say ‘appears to be’, as frankly the quality of the maps is poor. We had the electronic copies three weeks ago and I had hoped that the hard copies would be better. I am writing to the Minister for the Environment asking him to produce higher quality and more detailed maps. When I get them, I will report back. The maps in the planning document are tiny, and the boundaries of the new strategic area, now called Coed Morgannwg (Strategic Area F) are deliberately fuzzy. (To be honest, a child’s join-the-dots picture would be clearer.) However, having ‘joined up the dots’, so to speak, it seems to me that in the Rhondda Fach, Maerdy, Ferndale and Tylorstown, which were all within the windfarm development area before, are now outside it. In the Rhondda Fawr, Treorchy, Treherbert, Tynewydd, Blaenrhondda, and Clydach Vale, which were all in the area before, are now outside it. I have questions marks about Blaencwm and parts of Cwmparc, and some of the hills west of the towns in the Rhondda Fawr. In the overall scheme of things this may be a small victory but if true it is a welcome one.

The TAN 8 guidance with the new map included can be found here.