DPP was instructed by Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council to
defend the refusal of planning permission for a wind farm at a public
inquiry. The scheme proposed four wind turbines 101m tip to blade
in an upland Special Landscape Area, close to the Blaenavon World
Heritage Site and Brecon Beacons National Park.

Services:

• Appointment and co-ordination of expert witness team;
• Management of appeal process from submission through to
  inspector’s decision;
• Preparation of proof of evidence on planning matters and
  appearance at public inquiry;
• Negotiating Section 106 agreement and planning conditions.
  

DPP recognises that in many instances there is a tension between
development plan policies for promoting renewable energy and local
people who seek to protect sensitive locations. In this case, it was
clear that the very limited contribution the scheme would make to
renewable energy targets would not outweigh the significant harm
to the surrounding landscape or the impact on visual and residential
amenities.

Achievements
Following the instruction from the council, our close links with experts
in the relevant fields enabled us to appoint a specialist technical team
to defend the reasons for refusal. We assumed full responsibility from
the council for the appointment, co-ordination and management of
the expert witness team, instructing counsel and liaising closely with
the appellant, the Planning Inspectorate and Rule 6 parties.
Upon exchange of evidence we worked quickly to identify key
weaknesses in the appellant’s case. These included a fundamental
error in relation to land ownership requiring a right of access
over land owned by Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council and
limitations in the appellant’s technical analysis of the key issues.
After a two week inquiry, the Inspector fully endorsed the evidence
presented by the council and the appeal was ultimately dismissed.