I haven’t devoted a full piece to Bute Energy and the rest since August last year. Which is somewhat remiss, seeing as the plans are ongoing and causing great concern to communities across the land.
That said, maybe this offering is directed more at the general reader than those who follow Bute’s activities closely, or are involved with a particular campaign group, of which there are perhaps too many. (More on this later.)
Though I’ve had a gutsful of Bute and the other eco-scammers who’ve taken up more space on this blog than the diamond geezers and career criminals.
Yet they’re lauded in the media, have politicians in their back pocket, and the red carpet is rolled out for these exploitative interlopers.
◊
INTRO, RECAP
After a visit to the cellar, dusting off a few files, I think I’ve found my first reference to Bute. It was back in November 2018. In the piece, Corruption in the wind?
Though Bute first appeared via a connection with someone I’d already written about.
This pathfinder was Steven Radford. He was fronting for a major player named U + I in three wind farm projects: Bryn Blaen, near Llangurig; Rhoscrowther, down on the Haven; and Hendy, a few miles from Llandrindod.
U + I was soon taken over by Landsec; big shareholders in Landsec are BlackRock, Vanguard, Legal & General, Jupiter Asset Management.
In that November 2018 piece I wrote:
In September Radford branched out again with Bute Energy Ltd . . . in the electricity business, the production, transmission, distribution and trade of electricity to be exact.
What I didn’t know at the time was that the boys of Bute had all come from property company Parabola. And that the lead director of Bute, Oliver James Millican, is the son of Parabola boss, Peter John Millican.
The other Bute principals we’ve come to know are: Lawson Douglas Steele and Stuart Allan George. Barry Woods was a fourth departure from Parabola in November 2017. But Woods parted company with the others in September 2019.
Another name that crops up is John Reilly. Like those just named (apart from Millican) he has a company named ‘Windward’ followed by his initials. I can’t be sure if Reilly worked for Parabola, but he is now Project Manager for Bute. Like the others, he lives in Scotland.
These ‘personal’ companies all saw a massive boost in their values recently.
These figures might be accounted for by a payout from Grayling Capital LLP, which dissolved around that time. For Millican, Steele and George were Designated Members, and Reilly a Member. Another Member had been SuperSpAd and ‘Welsh’ Labour insider David James Taylor. (Mentioned a few times on this site.)
UPDATE: More plausibly, the windfall is explained here.
But that only throws up another question – where did the money come from that went into Grayling Capital?
Whatever the answer, that’s a lot of money for a group that has yet to put up a single turbine. Ask yourself, how does that ten grand for your village hall from a developer’s ‘community fund’ compare to sums like these?
Taylor also did well for himself. The clip below is from the accounts of Taylor’s company Moblake Ltd. A liquidator was appointed in April 2022 and Taylor rode off into the sunset with the 600k in his saddlebags.
The ultimate holding company for all the Bute entities is Windward Global Ltd. The sole director is Millican Jnr. The company was formed in May 2017 as DMWSL 864 Ltd and changed its name six months later, at the exact same time we are expected to believe the boss’s son and his mates turned their backs on Parabola.
Somehow, the Parabola-Bute crew made contact with Radford. Who joined Bute Energy Ltd in September 2018, less than a week after Oliver Millican. (The company changed its name to RSCO 3750 Ltd and folded in September 2023.)
How was this contact made? Why did Parabola turn its attention to wind turbines? And to Wales?
◊
PARABOLA-BUTE DISCOVERS WALES
But how did they ‘discover’ Wales? Were there introductions? To answer these questions I’ll begin with something substantive before flying a kite.
In the first piece, of November 2018, you’d have read a section – ‘Mystery Woman’ – in which I identified Anna McMorrin as a lobbyist for Hendy wind farm. She was then a Labour insider shacked up with a minister in the ‘Welsh Government’, and she went on to become the MP for Cardiff North in the June 2017 general election.
Seventeen months after McMorrin’s performance before Powys councillors, Steven Radford of Hendy wind farm teamed up with Parabola-Bute.
This pattern of Labour party involvement (ahem!) has been repeated in subsequent years. Most recently with Sophie Howe, former Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, who became a director of the new Bute Energy Ltd last month. (It switched names with RSCO 3750 Ltd.)
Labour party troughing is covered in many other posts on this site.
So we have the Labour party helping windfarm developers, but that doesn’t establish a connection for Radford with Millican and his pals. Yet people I’ve spoken with recently are convinced the key lies with Radford and Hendy Wind Farm Ltd.
And what a story of political corruption that was; done to help a project meet an OFGEN funding deadline, with one hurriedly erected turbine – that has never turned!
But even if Hendy is the key, that still doesn’t explain how Radford and the Bute gang met each other.
Here’s one possibility . . .
McMorrin was working for a company, Invicta Public Affairs, with branches in Glasgow and London, but its registered office is on the Gallowgate, not far from St James’ Park in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Parabola, despite having offices in Edinburgh and London, began life in Newcastle and still maintains a presence in a building it redeveloped near the Central Station.
I admit the Geordie connection is tenuous; yet while the Labour party link to both Radford and Bute is established, there is still no evidence it was the comrades who brought them together.
Though the Labour party is now so enmeshed with Parabola-Bute it might soon be difficult to disentangle them. What with individual party members involved and then the council pension fund investment. (Controlled by BlackRock.)
Plaid Cymru is also getting in on the climate scam. Sorry! that should read: saving the planet for future generations. In the form of an obscure Plaid loyalist from Ynys Môn named Carmen Smith.
After dabbling in student politics, working for politicos and leftist groups, Smith was given a made-up job with Bute in October 2023 – Advisor on Youth Governance! Her employer is named as Windward Global, the ultimate holding company for the Bute empire.
Next, she made it to the House of Lords when Plaid needed to replace retiring Lord Wigley. The election process was rigged in order to ignore members’ choice of former MP Elfyn Llwyd.
These shenanigans now give Bute a presence in the House of Lords.
◊
KLINGON AND A POSSIBLE RESTORATION TRAGEDY
As is often the case with planning permission – and perhaps especially in Wales – what is originally given consent is often very different to what is eventually built. ‘Changes’ and ‘modifications’ are made, which may or may not go through the planning process.
In the case of Bute Energy these now include, “bigger blades, higher substations, to cracking on before approval of any restoration plans. The local authorities, who told PEDW they have no resources to oversee any planning conditions, appear to be rubber stamping things“.
Never was rubber stamping more obvious than with this amendment submitted by Bute to Caerphilly council regarding Twyn Hywel wind farm. Fortunately, the council accepts correspondence in English, Welsh, and Klingon.
For it was indeed accepted.
In the quote I used just now you’ll have seen a reference to “restoration plans“. So let me explain what this is about.
After certain opencast mines came to the end of their working lives in southern Wales it was expected that the companies involved would – as promised – restore the sites to something close to their original state.
But, alas, when the time came for the restoration to begin – the companies involved had relocated to offshore tax havens.
In 2010, a company called Celtic Energy sold its opencast coalmines – with its restoration liabilities – for £1 apiece to a series of shell companies it had set up in the British Virgin Islands. Then the senior executives walked away with millions.
To avoid something similar happening with windfarms a number of people have submitted FoI requests to the ‘Welsh Government’ about site restoration, but I’ve yet to see a response that satisfies anyone.
UPDATE 02.10.2025: Here’s an example that I’ve just received from a reader. Natural Resources Wales says they can’t tell how much they demand for wind farm site restoration, because “this information is commercially sensitive“.
It’s now being suggested that wind turbines in Wales have an operational lifespan of 50 years. Below is a clip from Google AI, and here’s a link to a piece in Solar Power Portal which says, “Manmoel Wind will have an operational life span of 50 years“.
Obviously, no turbine lasts 50 years. A turbine is lucky to make 20, or 25. So people who’ve seen that 50 year figure assume the turbines will be replaced at some stage.
Yet the extended lifespan claim appears again in this response from Bute to a question from a concerned local resident:
Quite frankly, I believe that ten years from now few new (or replacement) turbines will be going up. People are no longer listening to the Swedish doom goblin and her Globalist masters. Reality is kicking in.
So the question remains: with the bubble soon to burst, why are turbines going up today, or tomorrow, being given operational lifespans of 40 or 50 years?
Could it be because developers have an arrangement with politicians and planners that restoration of a site begins when the agreed operational lifespan is up? Even if the turbines had long ago stopped working. Or had even been removed?
My belief is that restoration costs should be paid up front, before a single turbine is erected, and the money ring-fenced so politicians can’t get their grubby paws on it. Furthermore, the restoration costs must not be limited to the visual. There must be enough money deposited to pay for the removal and disposal of the vast concrete bases in which every turbine stands.
Questions need to be asked about this extended operational lifespan. And whether it will be linked with site restoration.
UPDATE 12.10.2025: I should add that being ‘imaginative’ with a project’s lifespan might encourage hesitant investors. And it will be used by politicians spouting ‘future generations’ bollocks to grant planning permission.
◊
THE PYLON RUNS
Clearly, the hundreds of wind turbines planned for remote upland areas of Wales are a long way from the eventual consumers in England. For that’s where it’s going. (Ignore bullshit like, “powering seven million Welsh homes“.)
Below you’ll see two maps that I hope will help explain the position.
On the left is a map produced by the ‘Welsh Government’ in its Future Wales The National Plan 2040 (update), showing the designated areas for wind power. On the right, a map produced by CPRW (here), adding areas for solar power and associated infrastructure including pylon routes.
Because, clearly, there will be a need for pylons and overhead power lines to run from the windfarms to where they can connect with the grid. Though in environmentally sensitive (or politically favoured) sections the cabling might be underground.
In the southern half of the country this means a run from around Aberedw, east of Llandrindod, down to Builth, and then down Dyffryn Tywi to Llandyfaelog, south of Carmarthen. The other southern line runs from the wild country east of Lampeter – projects I covered in this piece – following the Teifi before branching off south from somewhere near Llandysul.
In the northern section, the run starts near Llangurig, then runs north before turning north east to its destination at Lower Frankton in Shropshire. Though for some reason we were originally told it ended in ‘Chirk’.
Perhaps we were supposed to think it would supply Wrecsam and Deeside.
This simple map of the grid in Wales will also help as it shows most of the turbines planned are going up in areas a long way from that grid.
Most electricity in Wales is generated by Pembroke power station in the far south west. The line then runs east, supplying much of the urban south, before taking power over the border.
The loop in the north is, I suspect, accounted for by the decommissioned nuclear power stations at Wylfa and Trawsfynydd.
Let’s conclude this section by focusing on an area just mentioned, Twm Siôn Cati country. There’s a very active group opposing the three projects we’ve heard about (there may be more to come), and there was a public meeting last month.
Here’s a report from the Western Mail. Here in pdf format.
The meeting was held in Pumsaint because, as I explained in the piece I linked to earlier, the blades and turbines will need to be transported from Pumsaint up country, and over the 2,500 acres of the National Trust’s Dolaucothi estate.
For some reason the NT is coy about giving out information about its involvement with wind farm developers.
To add to the air of mystery, I’m informed that prior to the Pumsaint meeting local Plaid worthies met with Bute representatives at the Falcondale Hotel, just a mile or so north east of Lampeter. Is this true?
If so, what did they discuss? More peerages?
◊
ODDS AND ENDS
I’ve been writing about wind farms for so long, and more keep appearing, that I was almost on the point of giving up. But like I say, as truth dawns, and the costs mount, the bubble will eventually burst.
So I’ll stick with it, and give a few random thoughts. First, something that’s been a stone in my shoe for a while. Maybe someone out there can help.
It’s a company called Storagefolk Ltd. The sole director is Oliver Millican, and ownership traces back to super holding company Windward Global, where all the shares are owned by Millican.
Now, this company was formed September 2017; it seems to do nothing, yet it’s kept alive, so I must assume there’s a reason for its existence. But what?
Answers on a postcard . . .
Returning to electricity transmission . . . in a belated attempt to salvage its reputation the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ set up Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru. Which, to date, has achieved virtually nothing beyond virtue signalling.
And of course, costing us money.
Those clowns in Corruption Bay had over two decades to ensure that, if we had no alternative but to participate, that at least Wales benefitted from this climate scam. But they did nothing beyond pimping Wales out to any green con artists who slunk into view.
Bute has also set up a distribution company, Green Gen Cymru (GGC). Which is planning the pylon runs we looked at earlier. Though this is a joint venture with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a major funder for Bute.
The GCC chairman is Bleddyn Phillips, former chairman of London Welsh Rugby Club, who worked in Russia when his wife, Dame Anne Pringle, was ambassador.
For many year Phillips was Global Head of Oil and Gas for multinational lawyers Clifford Chance LLP. These are not the kind of lawyers you go to if Plod arrests you for hurty words on X. We are talking big, big money here. Billions.
Consequently, Phillips must know many wealthy investors in the energy field from his globetrotting days. I wonder if any of them are interested in Green Gen Cymru?
◊
CONCLUSION
I don’t wish to name groups or individuals, but I believe the fight against these various – but linked – plans is too fragmented. A certain level of unity is needed. Or at the very least, co-operation.
Yet it must also be kept local.
By which I mean, involve local people, farmers and others with a stake in the country. At all costs avoid creating the impression that the only people opposing wind turbines and pylons are well-heeled nimbys who’ve moved into the area.
Selfish buggers who are now, “denying locals thousands of well-paid jobs“.
Because that’s the kind of lie those opposing you – politicians and ‘developers’ – will use to divide and discredit you.
And finally, don’t trust political parties that support Net Zero, wind farms and all the rest. Politicians with constituencies or council areas threatened by the projects of Bute and others are in trouble, and they know it.
So they’re trying to ride two horses. But only succeeding in coming across as more two-faced than usual. It is not a pretty sight.
Say, “Thank you very much for your kind offer of advice and assistance” – then help them through the door. Whether you open the door is entirely up to you.
♦ end ♦
© Royston Jones 2025
Copy of comment by Terry Breverton on N.C
16 hours ago
“At last Nation Cymru is publicising the destruction of Cymru. But it is not just by wind monsters – some of the biggest in the world going ahead as being ‘of national significance’ – but associated pylons, substations, trashed hedges and lost forests. We are also being covered by millions of unrecyclable solar panels. All solar and wind energy needs immediate back-up from nuclear or gas, so we are duplicating electricity supplies. Alongside these pointless wind and solar ‘farms’ and ‘parks’, we are now seeing huge lithium-ion battery – you guessed it – ‘farms’ and ‘parks’ promising to back up power shortages, but they can only supply for 2-3 hours locally. Their main purpose is to ensure 24-hour availability to the scores of new data centres springing up next to them. These require enormous amounts of electricity and clean water. Our politicians seem to think that these American data centres will provide thousands of jobs, but the important jobs will be carried out in the USA, and subsidiary coding posts are increasingly being carried out by AI. Data centres, like wind ‘turbines’ and electric cars, bikes and scooters can cause unstoppable fires. Since the 1990 my self and just 3 or 4 other people have been writing to the press about the climate change priority of the Senedd. Wales is reponsible for about 4 ten-thousands, 0.004% of global greenhouse emissions. We have neglected our health, education, real jobs and infrastructure on the altar of saving the planet, while destroying our land forever. Nothing will be recycled, no land will be remediated, and generations to come will despair at the decades of pointless green ideology emanating from our politicians.”
Some of the other comments on there make me despair. The green gospels have done a job on so many mugs here in Wales.
Brainwashing works.
Well done Terry Breverton [ top Welsh author. Google his name to find DOZENS of factual books on Wales!] !!
I am one of the 3 or 4 writers mentioned by Terry. I have been writing to the Press against Welsh wind energy since around 1997………non-stop! Furthermore, I am not a NIMBY. None of the wind turbines are near me in Gwbert, Cardigan. I have always fought for the rest of Wales….the whole of Wales …….and its treasured landscapes.
There are around 1000 gargantuan wind turbines averaging 750 ft high, proposed for Wales, because Minister, Rebecca Evans [ who is legging itout of the Senedd in 2026!], has said there is “5000MW of onshore wind planned for Wales”.
That is 1000 x 5 MW monsters….which are around 750 ft high.
Some will be 820ft!! Blades of 750 ft ones at Waun Maenllwyd, Lampeter are claimed to be 279 ft long.
Firstly, how do you cart such 279 ft loads along 10 ft wide,winding back-roads of Wales!!??
No motorways or Autobahns in Ceredigion or Powys!!
Secondly, the turning circle/swept area of 279 ft blades is 5.6 ACRES or 3.7 football pitches. The noise and shadow-flicker will be unbearable. Local house prices , within 7 miles , will collapse!! 750 ft/820 ft wind turbines will have to be lit 24/7 , so they will be visible from 20 miles.
The SINGLE STRUCTURE Blaenplwyf TV mast at Llanrhystud, Aberystwyth is ONLY 499 FEET and that is lit 24/7.. It is also very , very narrow. The diameter of Waun Maenllwyd monsters is 558 feet!
The HEIGHT of Blackpool Tower is ONLY 520 ft………and that is visible from Holyhead Mountain, Flintshire……..30 miles away !!
Please question developers Belltown Power, whose Public Notice is in the CAMBRIAN NEWS this week,Oct 29th edition. They invite questions….pre-planning.
Also question Bute Energy who have 22 wind farms planned across our hills.
Write letters to the PRESS…..Cambrian News, Tivyside, Western Mail, County Times, Liverpool Daily Post, South Wales Evening Post and Shropshire Star.
THIS WANTON DESTRUCTION OF WALES MUST STOP !! USE THE PRESS AS WELL AS BLOGS!
Off topic – I’ve been totally Black Listed off the comments section of the news website NATION.CYMRU. Has anyone else suffered the same honorary fate? Just asking.
Now back to topic – ‘Wind Turbines and Bute Energy’ and their ilk. This posting of yours Jac has certainly rattled cages. Keep exchanging information patriots.
Ioan, why bother with Nation.Cymru? I gave up years ago.
Whisper it among allies but I enjoy going on there to wind people up. One has to be careful as they are not cool with some of the ruder stuff I could cheerfully use with some of their commenters who are an awfully sensitive crew if you fail to conform to their narrow world view. So much for the broad church approach to gaining support.
I was blocked from their facebook page so you are in good company!!
Net Zero madness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZlmPM8yLNA
A man in Monmouthshire has been fined for cutting down one publicly owned tree. This gives me a wry smile as several million publicly owned immature forestry trees have been cut down by rapacious developers of erratic Wind Turbines without a murmur, let alone a prosecution. Furthermore many many extra trees are due to be axed by the million, and chain sawed to bits, and not to be replaced for the same purpose, with the blessing of this net zero obsessed Wales Government / Senedd.
Well observed Ioan. Of course the zealots peddling green gospels just won’t pick up on that simple logic.
I was reading some data on substack just a moment back. It states that the worst performer on production to compere with the year before is RWE’s Mynydd y Gwair Wind Farm. Its production was dowwn 28.6% as of this year to last!
Can you let us all know the source of that info’ so we can monitor it and others.
On Substack, then Eigen Values. Title is Frankly i couldn’t give a damn. The author is David Turver – and he is as good as it gets!
Plus the UK Govt is allowing millions of trees to be felled in North America and burned in a FLASH in DRAX Power station in Yorkshire…..to produce “green electricity” for the UK !!
What a joke!! Pure hypocrisy !!
Perfectly good, valuable trees are being felled in USA and Canada………and carted in diesel-powered ships, 3000 miles across tha Atlantic ??????
How is that “GREEN”?? Complain in the Press please!!
For info. copy below of my letter to PEDW requesting redraft of their model condition relating to drainage. It is ludicrous that these enormous turbines can be constructed before drainage schemes are implemented. Currently awaiting reply from PEDW.
Panning Manager
Planning & Environment Decisions Wales [PEDW]
Crown Buildings
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ
My Ref: NCC/WJ/253
Your Ref:
Date: 29 September 2025
Dear Planning Manager
Subject: DNS – Model Conditions
I attach copy of PEDW model conditions for DNS projects published 25 July 2025.
Model condition 18 is reproduced below. I write to record my concerns regarding text coloured blue.
I would be grateful if PEDW could consider a minor redraft of the model condition as set out below in red text.
I look forward to your observations at your convenience. Thank you.
Kind regards
Thesr developers will need massive dtainage works on the Cambrians Wynne. They will be hard pressed to navigate their roadwork etc etc, over them peat and clay bogs, which form a great deal of the range.
In the display last evening, I noticed on one of their propoganda boards offerings to local bulding suppliers for business to supply drainage pipes and fencing material etc etc. The way they are going on, there will be no one left in the locality that hsd not been offered something from them. But the bare truth is that everyone who pays an electricity bill is paying for all this bribe!
Thanks for your note Eifion. I’m on the case regarding drainage issues and will copy Jac in as my correspondence on the subject continues with PEDW and Welsh Government.
In general, it seems the model conditions published by PEDW – in a document dated 25 July 2025 – for these wind energy projects favour developers which is why it is important to scrutinise the detail and to challenge the conditions. The devil is likely to be in the detail. Unfortunately, the Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Evans is likely to approve projects before drainage details are presented to Local Authorities to discharge pre-commencement conditions on these projects. In my view the DNS process – administered by PEDW – is not fit for purpose.
I think Rebecca Evans is likely to rubber stamp all these projects which will come before her.
Towards the close of play last evening, I was the only one left with at least six of the firm’s flunkies with me. I told them that when Wales gets to kick this kaput government out next may, it could be curtains for all these hair brained energy projects! I asked them if they’ve recieved a letter from Reform yet? Reform has sent out a letter to these tin pot companies to inform them that when/if they win the election next year, then all these projects will be binned! They said they had!
If that is not a rallying cry for proper change, then what the hell else is!?
Much as I dislike Reform because of their shallow attitude to anything that’s not completely wedded to the Anglo Brit supremacist mindset I am happy to cut them a bit of slack long enough to bring this wind inspired ransacking of our country to an end. If it doesn’t happen until post 2029 UK GE I fear that too many of these carpetbagger driven projects will be in place. If they gain a significant representation at Y Senedd in 2026 I would like them to commit to applying “after the event” penalties on any project commissioned after May 2026 and do away with any payment or price mechanism that causes inflated prices to the consumer.
I understand your standpoint Dafis. As Lenin once said: ” You cannot make an omlette without first breaking a few eggs”. The western world have gone down this road of wokery – and anything that has worked well in the past must be broken and destroyed. The American people, like us Europeans, have had enough and are fighting back against this mush! Farage, like Trump, has many flaws, but they do talk the language of sanity. The other option is what we have now, which is a moral and physical decline and decay.of the lowest order.
Well said, Eifion!
Rebecca Evans rubber stamped REFUSAL for the first Mynydd y Gwair Wind Power Station application in north Swansea. Then a few years later, with little changed, she rubber stamped APPROVAL for a second application at Mynydd y Gwair. How very odd! There’s no logic or consistency in Wales Government. It’s just an obsession with net zero where Cymru Fach is going to save the planet !
Yes, totally agree. A political decision by Rebecca Evans on all projects regardless of the recommendation by PEDW Planning Inspector on any specific project. She will be well-rewarded for enforcing globalist net zero policy when she leaves public office as all ministers and prime ministers are. I’m surprised that anyone still believes we live in a democracy!
Am I right in saying that Mynydd y Gwair Wind Power Station would not have been built if some certain American, who sold their soul, gave NPower permission to go over a field that he/she owned?
Eifion you are sort of correct. The deveopers preferred access to Mynydd y Gwair was across some farmland very near the FOUNTAIN PUB in Pontarddulais. At 81 yrs of age my recent memory does not hold the full detais. Anyway this land was owned by a family ‘living away’ – probably in America – and of course once they smelt the cash they obliged. Had they not agreed, there were other options of access available but not so easy. So Mynydd y Gwair would have gone ahead anyway.
incidentally near this access was a house causing obstruction so the owners were offered a very large sum to sell it for demolition and then further up the access, another land owner sold an old field (that was once common land) to be used as exchange land for existing common land further up. It was so complicated and all several years back and my memory is failing. The main thing is that we fought a very long battle for decades against several factors – against big money; big top legal teams; the Duke of Beaufort’s family Trust; collaborative Labour councillors who ruled locally; Plaid cymru who support such schemes; the list goes on.
Yes Eifion, you are sort of correct about a land owner exiled in America but that was the preferred access and they got it, but had they not, there were less favourable alternatives.
We won the first Public Inquiry convincingly but lost the second one. Not without mass demonstrations, and serious DIRECT ACTION had taken place like Trywerin, but that was never published. It has a very murky detailed history that ended with betrayal and big money talking. If my memory was better I could write a book on this long long long lost fight. That’s why I still throw barbs in the form of regular letters to the press supporting opposition elsewhere, but most of the people of Wales have no fire in their bellies these days and I could never ever support Reform Party who are the only party really opposing this destruction of Wales! There are many so called ‘ACTION’ GROUPS but they are all rather secretive. They need to band together and form a co-ordinated poitical fight under some form of emerging Owain Glyndwr charismatic person not a tosser like Farage. Where is the son of prophecy? Is he locked in a closet?
Matters are not to dissimilar with us to the issue you had in your area.The developers we have here (three chancers), where you had one, much bigger and more reputable (for want of a better word) in NPower.
These three’s prefered route is to turn right in Pumsaint itself, then on to National Trust’s land for approx 10 yds. Then over our Pumsaint community’s land; which is tiny – hence ransom strip. Then over our community’s playing field – which is leased from the NT – where a raised road is to built at a 1metre high anf 5 metres wide, plus banks at both sides. This is needed to protect the Roman Fort that lays below. This raised road is left for 45 years! Then for four, maybe more, miles on NT land, but leased by NRW. And then on NRW land to the Cambrians proper, where new roads need to be build to reach site.
There are other routes explored by the developers – even on NT land – where there is no need to destroy our community land and the playing field that we lease from the NT. Also the’ve explored two other routes only a mile or so further on from Pumsaint. However, the good people who owned the land on them routes held firm, and would not sell to the developers!
As I’ve said before, we at Pumsaint have only liaised with the minnow of the three, in Belltown. The big, ugly whale of the troika is Bute! Not a murmour as of yet from them.
Belltown is no minnow, Eifion. Not when you trace the very complicated ownership structure. We might be hearing the name more in the future.
As of numbers declared, it is. They have six, 200m machines at Waunaenllwyd. I do agree, that as a company – especially with Foresight Holdings as banker – it is, probably the big one of the three. But in this case it is the key to open the golden gate at Pumsaint.. I would not be surprised if FH has its cash in other developments on the Cambrians also!
With these outfits you have to peel away the layers to see who you’re really dealing with.
Like with onions you mean Jac??
Exactly!
Rebecca Evans is legging it out of the Senedd in 2026!!
She mentioned 5000MW onshore wind in the pipeline.
That is 1000 gigantic wind turbines averaging 5MW or 750 ft high…….on a little country of 8015 sq miles….and there won’t be any in Anglesey because:-
[a] Rhun ap Iorwerth said they are “unsuitable” for Anglesey a few years ago.
[b] Baroness Carmen Smith of Llanfaes [Plaid Cymru put her in the Lords]
WORKS FOR BUTE ENERGY!!
There will be none in Pembrokeshire because Pembs County Cllr John Davies , Cwmbettws, Boncath, who chairs South and West Wales Fire Authority too]…….ALSO WORKS FOR BUTE ENERGY!!
So those NIMBYS don’t have them in their own counties………whilst they cash in on…….and WRECK…..the rest of Wales!!!
PlusPowys County Council pension fund……..is invested in Bute Energy!! How is that legal?
Wales is a devious little, corrupt country……….at least some of its leading “public servants”[JOKE! should be “self-servants”] are corrupt.
Peat and clay bogs – the very things that the Labour regime in the Bay is trying to recreate according to another of their fanciful initiatives. They are daft enough to think that you can rip up dozens of sq miles of nature in one place and rehab it elsewhere. Only a thick townie would do that, or a deviant malicious politician.
In the case of Labour, it’s a bit of both.
Well put Wynne. Do readers recall that after the Pen y Cymoedd huge Wind Turbine complex was constructed there were problems with surface water floodings in the Rhondda area below the excavations, where no such problems had existed before. There could have been several reasons e.g. simply lack of maintenance of existing culverts by RCT CBC, or possibly disturbance of water courses and trees and peat bogs on the hills above done by the Wind Turbine excavations or even just excess wet weather – who knows what. Anyway, at the time I wrote to the local Plaid Cymru County Councillor suggesting she investigate if the Wind Turbine site activity was the possible cause. She ignored me totally and has gone on to be a Senedd Member. This is typical of Plaid Cymru in the valleys – net zero idiocy comes before people!
Check Gibbett Hill Wind Farm County Wexford. An Irish High Court judge awarded 330,000 Euros compensation to two Irish families that had suffered NOISE PROBLEMS from Gibbett Hill. He fined the wind energy company millions in legal costs and closed down 2 or 3 wind turbines.
It may be Irish….but it is a PRECEDENT!! How can the IRISH GOVT via CORIOLIS erect 17 x 820 ft wind turbines at Bryn Wind Farm……..NEXT TO BRYN VILLAGE AND OVERLOOKING MAESTEG, GOYTRE AND PONTRHYDYFEN??
Come on folks! Quote the IRISH judge and tell Coriolis you are going to SUE THEM…….because these 820 ft monsters are double the height of Gibbett Hill’s 400 ft ones….WITH TREBLE THE SWEPT AREA FOR EACH MACHINE…..AND FAR MORE MONSTER MACHINES!!
This is a NO-BRAINER!! They will NEVER LIVE with these in Bryn village et al !
COMMON-SENSE!
Noise and flicker were issues I didn’t deal with. But I know these are well covered by others.
The blades of some new monsters are 279 ft long, giving a turning circle of 5.6 ACRES for one wind turbine!!
Of course, they will be ULTRA-NOISY!!
A 400 ft wind turbine only has 150 ft blades!! 279 is almost double 150 !!
People won’t live with such monster machines 750 ft to 820 ft high !
Impossible!!
Tell me who else has 820 ft wind turbines ON LAND, please?
How do you CART 279 ft blades on lorries through Wales???
Anyone got pics?
One of the problems we have is that the only ppl to turn up at these meetings are older! like me!!. If you want to stop this or should I say control it and educate ppl then more young ppl have got to be involved or care. Most are too busy with kids, work and homelife to care as if its not their problem and doesnt directly affect them then they are not interested. Only interested when the Grid goes down then they will ask questions. We live in a society where its not my problem its someone elses and that is at the bottom of all our underlying probs and issues and I wont say fake news but misinformation designed to throw ppl off track…
One problem you face is that kids are being brainwashed in school, by teachers, and by developers, who are allowed in to give ‘talks’. Kids then go home and influence parents.
Those opposed to wind turbines should also be allowed into schools, to talk to children, if only in the interests of balance.
Too much compliance about everything in our modern society. People only kick off if something affects them adversely. They don’t see the bigger picture. People laff at the muppet Milliband but don’t see the real danger and awful waste that he is perpetrating through his policies and actions. Cheaper juice ? No fuckin chance, it’s gonna be worse than ever.
For balance, kids and most adults should listen to Billy Bob Thonton’s description of wind energy and its limited uses in a crappy old American TV series, Landman, about big oil in West Texas. The story was rubbish but those few minutes from B.B was a succinct summing up of why we are being led up or down a dangerous garden path. Way better advocate than Trump or any of his mob.
People aren’t encouraged to see the bigger picture because the media is part of the problem.
sort of…but they are not interested as Dafis said…its only if it effects them…
Yes, Dafis but we are not allowed to complain and thats a huge issue and as I said and you have just said its only if it affects them personally.The Nat Grid is not fit for purpose. Starmer muttered it in his pre elec spouts and then shut up. The fact and the reality is we rely on electricity utterly and absolutely totally in every aspect of our lives without total anarchy and in discussions with ppl they dont realise that all this is held in Data Centres. All they are interested in is that they can watch Netflix and iplayer etc on demand and omg if they loose their mobile signal its the end of the world. The real threat to our existence is cyber crime and until we wake up to that theres nothing you or I or anyone can do…
Very true and they instill fear into the children that they are going to die if we dont save the planet. Sadly as you have always said its all about money.
sorry if I have replied twice…had to do something!! lol…yes, thats true but there was an interesting article somewhere in the press how a person who complained about a school was actually arrested for harrasment. So you cant complain and the society we live in doesnt allow us to say what we want anymore. The bullys in schools are allowed to carry on as its easier to remove the victim.
I attended a consultation by Belltown/ Foresight last evening. Belltown is an American firm from Texas, but has a british arm based in Bristol. And Foresight, who finance this ‘energy hub’ – with its accounts are based in a tax resort of Guernsey – with this project of six 200m wind turbines plus battery storage units, above Llanddewi Brefi. The project is called Waunmaenllwyd.
These developers held a consultation at Pumsaint Coronation Hall because, just a few yards from our beloved second home (hall) they plan to make their way from the termac road, the A482 to the high plateau, above Ffarmers to the site. There is also more to this saga.We, the good people of Pumsaint, own a tiny piece of ground that is part of our hall. These developers need that ‘ransom strip’ to drive over
The Waunmaenllwyd project is sandwiched between two, much bigger Bute projects, called Lan Fawr with 40 and BrynRudd with 15 turbines. Each extending to 750ft tall. Belltown, when liaising with us local people (fourth time at Pumsaint hall) always claim that ‘Bute has nothing to do with them’, and ‘ we are independent’ They also claim that their project is more sensitive to the surroundings by claiming that, ‘ their turbines are in a ‘conifer plantation, therefore partly hidden’ – even though at 200m tall!. Also they claim that they, unlike Bute, and because this is a small project, that they do not need ‘pylons to transmit the power,’ because their power will be ‘carried on wooden poles to the sub station at Lampeter’… What a rose between two thorns!
But this is the sneaky bit, Jac. Bute, the ugly sister, have not been representing themselves with us, the natives at Pumsaint, at all! Pumsaint with its gateway to the Cambrians lies strategically important for these two developers – and another ugly sister developer, called Galileo, who have a project called BrynCadwgan with 19, 230m machines!
Belltown, as I said previously, is the only firm that has liaised with us, and claim to be free spirits! What a lie, they may be, they may claim, to be the Cinderella of the sisters, but they are just as ugly as their siblings.
And to cap it all, their main man at the consultation, claimed their new super duper machines are 50% efficient! What bare faced lie! The onshore average boasts 25 -30% efficiency. What planet do these people come from? What carpet bagging snake oil salesmen/women are these people!
Back to work sorting out my ‘danger to our planet methane emiting sheep’ for me. Chaw for naw.
They are all a bunch of carpetbagging exploiters – kunts of the first order whose only experience of the truth is an occasional coincidence. Apart from their reliance on good old fashioned energy sources to manufacture the mix of components that are required to build these turbines they will need to gouge out miles of upgraded access routes to the eventual sites. More rape of one of the last real bits of “fair country” left in Cymru.
I never believed that one could reason or negotiate with these turds because they have engineered the blessing of ruling regimes in most countries trotting out the most shallow arguments as though they were gospel. Should have hurt a few of them way back when a good hiding might have influenced their thinking. I suspect they now fear such an event as I understand they have security personnel attending some of their events.
Foresight already has a bad name in the area through buying up farms for greenwash trees.
As for your ‘ransom strip’, expect our wonderful politicians to grab it with a CPO, because we are dealing with a Development of National Significance, so they can do whatever they damn well like.
Belltower may be playing the good guys (not difficult given how the others operate), but they’re cut from the same cloth. And you mentioning Bristol reminds me how many of our problems in Wales emanate from or are channeled through that city.
If it comes to a CPO you can bet your last shirt that the feeble tossers from the Bay regime will give it all away. Shame we don’t have months of heavy trucks churning up roads past their residences, innit.
I’ve used this more than once, it’s Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase saying they must confiscate land – to save the planet. They’re talking about vast swathes of land, so a little patch near a village hall in west Wales is nothing.
Amazing that likes of Mr Dimon don’t attract terminal violence. There again rounding up all the loud mouths who’ve spouted nonsense about legalising theft of land and other dodgy actions to enable the green revolution would take years. Make yerself useful Donald ……..
I believe there are CPO powers in the new Infrastructure [Wales] Act 2024. The Act comes into effect 15 December 2025.
Can I raise three issues :-
(1) The gigantic steel and concrete Wind Turbine bases will remain on our scenic hills as monstrous eyesores for eternity like artificial ugly Tors!
(2) This alleged secretive recent meeting at the Falcondale Hotel, Lampeter, was allegedly between Plaid Cymru and Bute Energy. If it did take place, does anyone have details of the Agenda and what was ‘carved up’? Please release details publicly.
(3) Do any Local Government workers read this BLOG? If so are they not concerned as to how their Pension Fund Trustees, with UNISON agreement, have invested a substantial sum of their money into Bute Energy?
Wind turbines are like icebergs, you can only see about 10%, the mass is buried, never to be seen again. Eco evangelists at happy to save the planet, by ignoring how much fossil fuels are used to reach high temperatures to produce cement and how much dreaded CO2 is released. In saving the planet, it’s easy to forget the environment.
PEDW, started as a good idea, by taking responsibility from local authorities and the Welsh government to get what they want. But that’s not working, especially as developers make applications almost daily and the backlog grows and eventually the penny will drop. We’ve created a monster, but that’s not going to happen for years.
Here is a letter I’ve just sent to the Western Morning New, Exeter, in reply to green zealot ,Prof Bruce Webb. .There are VERY few wind turbines in Dvon….and NONE of the 650 ft to 820 ft monsters being dumped in Wales…TO POWER ENGLAND!
Dear Editor,
Hear !Hear!! Philip Milton of Devon!!
At least you have a Devonian talking common sense in your columns, Mr Editor!. As he says, you certainly have plenty of green “zealots” in the county, judging by their letters to the WMN !
How many of them benefit financially from wind energy, I wonder?
Two questions for Emeritus Professor Bruce Webb:-
[a] When are we going to see twenty or thirty 820 ft wind turbines around that green hot-bed of Exeter?
You’re not pushing hard enough for them, Prof Webb !! You’re not a NIMBY by any chance?….Surely not!!??
[b] When are you going to demand an undersea electricity cable link from Exeter to Brighton to power the South East with wind-generated electricity from Devon?
After all ! It is almost a third of the land area of Wales with a similar climate.
One little snag! How are you going to deliver 260 ft long wind turbine blades , for 820 ft monster spinners …..along the back roads of Devon and Cornwall ?
You expect us to do it in Wales, Prof Webb!! So when are you starting in Devon and Cornwall , please? Danish Vestas wind turbines can be conveniently delivered by sea into Exeter……or even Falmouth!
You can surely order them direct from Helle Thorning-Schmidt AKA Mrs Stephen Kinnock MP. She is a director of Vestas , and paid £53000pa which Mr Stephen Kinnock does not bother to declare.
Funnily enough, he officially objected to 820 ft monsters by rival Irish company Coriolis, for the giant Bryn Wind Farm in his own constituency around Port Talbot!!?
So a Labour Cabinet Minister cited horrendous noise, TV interference, shadow-flicker and failure to recycle 260 ft fibre glass blades as objections…..to a Welsh Government inquiry… ..
..whilst his Danish wife[ former Prime Minister of Denmark, no less!] flogs similar size 3-arm bandits to Bute Energy at 22 sites across the rest of Wales!!???……[ What’s that I can smell??]
Now there is an issue for the immensely clever Professor Bruce Webb to investigate!! If they are constructed he’ll be able to view them from Exmoor, Devon!! After all, it’s only about 25 miles from Port Talbot!!
Yours faithfully,
L J Jenkins,
Clyn-yr-ynys,
Gwbert,
Cardigan.
SA431PR
For info. copy below of model planning condition from a document published by PEDW 25 July 2025. It appears the can has been kicked down the road for 25 or 30 years!
Site decommissioning
4. Decommissioning scheme
No later than 12 months before the expiry date of the planning permission
hereby granted [as defined in condition 3] a decommissioning and site
restoration scheme shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the local
planning authority. The scheme shall include:
1. Details of the removal of all the [solar arrays / wind turbines] and the surface
elements of the development [plus one metre of the turbine bases below
ground level]; and
2. A Decommissioning Environmental Management Plan (DEMP) informed by
appropriate survey work.
Decommissioning of the site shall be carried out in accordance with the
approved decommissioning scheme.
Reason: To comply with the terms of the application and to be in accordance
with [policy / policies] [nos] of [Plan].
The writing is on the wall. If only we had politicians with the balls to ask the simple questions – and to demand the answers!
Just checked my file records. I received the following response from Planning Policy Branch Welsh Government 13 February 2025.
Hello Wynne
I write in response to your email to Julie James, Minister for Climate Change of 16th January regarding the decommissioning of development in the context of Future Wales Policy 18. I have been asked to reply.
Planning Policy Wales (PPW) paragraphs 5.9.20 and 5.9.29 onwards set out national policy on decommissioning renewable energy schemes and provide further information on how schemes should be decommissioned. PPW paragraph 5.9.30 states: –
Energy‑related developments should be decommissioned and sites remediated as soon as their use ceases. Planning authorities should use planning conditions or legal agreements to secure the decommissioning of developments and associated infrastructure, and remediation of the site. Planning authorities should consider including appropriate conditions for the decommissioning of energy generating developments and site restoration when they reach the end of their design life, taking into account any proposed after‑ use of the site. In addition, operators should ensure that sufficient finance is set aside to enable them to meet restoration obligations. An authority may require financial guarantees by way of a Section 106 planning obligation/ agreement, as part of the approval of planning permission to ensure that restoration will be fully achieved.
Criteria 11 of Future Wales Policy 18 should be read against the relevant policy within PPW.
Regards
Planning Policy Branch
So many vague phrases.
Planning authorities should consider(1) including appropriate conditions for the decommissioning of energy generating developments and site restoration when they reach the end of their design life(2), taking into account any proposed after‑ use of the site(3). In addition, operators should ensure that sufficient finance is set aside to enable them to meet restoration obligations(4). An authority may require financial guarantees by way of a Section 106 planning obligation/ agreement, as part of the approval of planning permission to ensure that restoration will be fully achieved.
1/ It should be mandatory.
2/ If developers claim the ‘design life’ is 40 years (as they are now doing) but subsidies are withdrawn in the next 5 -10 years, does that mean the turbines stand for 40 years?
3/ What possible ‘after-use’ could there be for a decrepit wind farm?
4/ “May require”. We are to trust the developers? Again, this should be mandatory.
Correct, Jac!!
This letter of mine is in the Liv Daily Post TODAY. I’ve also sent it to Western Mail and County Times.
We need EVERYONE to get THEIR Senedd members to ask questions of Eluned Morgan, please. Also get MPs to ask questions.
ALL POLITICIANS APART FROM REFORM ARE DODGING THIS CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT MATTER!! PUT PRESSURE ON THEM!!
Dear Editor,
I recently viewed the latest Welsh First Minister’s Questions on BBC Parliament. Again, there was no mention of the gigantic wind farms planned on land in Wales.
Not a single Senedd Member raised this contentious issue !!
Not long ago, Minister Rebecca Evans mentioned “5000MW of onshore wind proposed for Wales” . That is equivalent to 1000 750 ft high 5MW wind turbines…..almost double the height of the current largest in Wales…..in a little country that is only 8015 square miles in area………and ,yet, no Welsh politician ever mentions it …or challenges it !! ??
Nor does anyone mention or question how the requisite 3000 blade-carrying lorries , up to 260 feet long and the 3000 lorries carrying 186 ft long , very wide steel stancheon sections for 560 ft round steel columns will traverse our narrow , winding Welsh back-roads, often to very remote areas.
Nor are the importing ports discussed !! Where are they all coming to?
In fact, this whole major, major topic is completely avoided by all our politicians. WHY??
May I suggest that all your thousands of erudite readers raise these issues urgently with their Senedd Members and demand that they question the First Minister at the earliest opportunity?
It is an absolute disgrace, following all the myriad Press letters on this issue in the important County Times…that it is not thoroughly debated in the Senedd.
It is an issue that should also be the subject of questions in Westminster.
Why are Welsh MPs not asking why hundreds of 650 ft to 820 ft wind turbines are being planned for Wales to power English cities, whilst there are no such leviathans in planning in English counties close to Wales?
Does the wind stop at Offa’s Dyke?? So please tackle your MPs too !!
We need questions……..and we need ANSWERS, please!!
Yours faithfully,
L J Jenkins,
Clynyrynys,
Gwbert,
Cardigan.
SA431PR
From Ioan Richard 01792 843861
I recently wrote politely and logically to every elected representative I have with concerns I had about Wind Turbine safety – to my:-
My Community (Parish) Council
My three Ward County Councillors
My five Wales Senedd Member
My MP
and they have all ignored me! Is this UK democracy?
I live totally unrepresented in a non violent dictatorship !
It’s only non-violent because the resistance hasn’t yet started.
Interesting summary thank you. One minor point however is that I don’t believe the increase of value of the promoters private companies was from the dissolution of Grayling. Instead it appears to be from the 60 million dividend paid upwards by Bute representing the call option moneys received from Copenhagen. Oliver Millican’s personal company Windward Global appears to have benefited to the tune of £45 million from the same (see https://www.rethink.wales/defshr).
You may well be right.
For info. In reply to my enquiry, response received from Energy Policy Division Welsh Government dated 30 June 2025 is reproduced below.
Your Ref: NCC/WJ/234
Dear
Thank you for your email of 22nd June about local authorities in Wales as part of the “Wales Pension Partnership” investment of pension funds into wind energy projects.
The Local Government Pensions Scheme investments are overseen by Pensions Authorities. The Pensions Authorities are constituted on the historic eight county basis with members drawn from constituent principal Councils. The funds have also pooled some of their funds together through the Wales Pension Partnership.
Pension committees/authorities make decisions on investments. Investment decisions are made by the Pensions Authority/Committee in line with its investment strategy and advice from their professional advisors. Pension funds are separate pots of funding that cannot be accessed by principal councils for general purposes. The Welsh Government has no powers to direct the investment decisions of Pensions Authorities.
Developments of National Significance (DNS) are submitted to the Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) for consideration by an appointed independent Planning Inspector who submits a report to the Welsh Ministers; the report sets out the Inspector’s conclusions and recommendation. The final decision is then made by the Welsh Ministers. Welsh Ministers, in undertaking their duties, must act in accordance with the Ministerial Code which sets out the principles that govern the behaviour and conduct of ministers in government. These include, for example, rules on, for example, matters of conduct, accountability, and personal responsibility. The Developments of National Significance Procedural Guidance (2019) sets out the DNS process from pre-application discussion to Welsh Ministers decision. The process is designed to be open and transparent and incorporates engagement and consultation procedures with members of the public and key stakeholders.
DNS applications are scrutinised and determined in accordance with a prescribed, statutory process. All planning applications are dealt with on a case-by-case basis and planning law provides that decisions must be made in accordance with the development plan unless other material considerations indicate otherwise. The development plan includes Future Wales – the national development plan 2040, Strategic Development Plans and Local Development Plans. Future Wales Policies 17 and 18 set out renewable energy policy for Developments of National Significance, including the criteria that need to be addressed when applications are submitted and assessed.
Local Planning Authorities are statutory consultees on DNS as are locally elected members of an electoral ward directly affected by the proposed DNS and relevant Town and Community Councils. Any Local Authority or individual Councillor may submit a representation on the merits of the application. Most elected members are not members of a Pensions Authority and will not have been aware of details of investments or involved in any decision making.
It is for each Council and indeed each elected member to consider whether there is a conflict of interest in any specific decision the Council is making, or an elected member is considering. Members will be supported by the Council’s monitoring officer in making such judgements. However, there is a separation of roles here which would reduce the likelihood of such a conflict.
For a conflict or potential conflict to exist some form of financial or other benefit must be implied. Individual elected member representatives on a pensions authority/committee are not generally cabinet portfolio holders, they may have a vote on a DNS consultation response in a full council meeting and it would be for that member to consider whether they were conflicted in that situation under the Code of Conduct and declare an interest. The proportion of members from a principal council who sit on a pensions authority/committee is small and would be unlikely to generate the kind of conflict of interest you have asked about.
Thank you again for your query and your continuing interest in energy policy.
Yours sincerely
Energy Policy Division.
For info. Copy below of my enquiry to PEDW. Awaiting reply. Just when we thought we understood the rules, the rules are about to change.
Planning Manager
Planning & Environment Decisions Wales [PEDW]
Crown Buildings
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ
My Ref: NCC/WJ/252
Your Ref:
Date: 29 September 2025
Dear Planning Manager
Subject: Infrastructure [Wales] Act 2024 – Significant Infrastructure Projects [SIP]
I refer to the above subject. Guidance is currently available on your planning portal – at hyperlink below – regarding the current DNS planning process under the Planning Act.
https://www.gov.wales/developments-national-significance-dns-guidance
I would be grateful if you could give an indication when guidance will be available regarding the SIP process under Infrastructure [Wales] Act 2024 as the Act takes effect from 15 December 2025. Thank you.
Kind regards
Oes na modd i’w gysylltu heblaw fan hyn, os gwelwch yn dda?
Pardon?
Myfanwy is asking whether she can communicate with you in other ways rather than on this blog. I assume she may have information for you that can not be placed in the public domain.
She’s been touch now. I thought she was asking for a link to the blog. That’s what confused me. To explain . . .
I just opened an e-mail from someone asking for a link to my latest piece. Which, again, is confusing. If they know my blog, then the link is in the address bar. (And they must know my blog.) Or it’s in the piece I put out on X.
Myfanwy Alexander asks if there is a way of getting in touch with you apart from on this blog, Jac!
That’s the trouble with Wales. Far too many will not speak OPENLY!
Myfanwy Alexander is well known in Wales. Myfanwy, PLEASE oppose these wind monsters in the WESTERN MAIL, LIVERPOOL DAILY POST , COUNTY TIMES and other newspapers……..as well as on these blogs!! We need FAR MORE open opposition. .
NO GOOD BEING AFRAID!! SPEAK OUT, PLEASE!!
These 820 ft wind turbines will completely wreck Wales and its scenery.They wiil be visible from 20 MILES with their flashing lights on top of 1000ft to 2000ft mountains.
The NOISE will be incredible, because an 820 ft wind turbine with 260 ft blades, has a turning circle of 4.8 ACRES. Whereas , a 400 ft wind turbine with 150 ft blades only has a swept area/turning circle of 1.6 acres. So the 820 ft one is TREBLE the swept area of the present biggest onshore wind turbines!! Being the blades are far WIDER and HEAVIER, and the main stancheon is wider and taller [560 ft cylinder!] , the RACKET,,,,,,and the ECHOING will be infinitely worse!!.
There are “fighting groups” in Wales with names like “RE-THINK WALES” and “LIAISON STOP BUTE” and “FRIENDS OF RADNOR FOREST”
How does one find such obscure names if one is a “stranger”?? Impossible!!
These groups need to publicise their existence with letters to newspapers all over Wales!!
Newspaper letters sent to 20 newspapers is what is needed. Jeremy Andrews of RE-THINK has now realised this and has excellent letters in the Western Mail, Liv Daily Post and Cambrian News in recent weeks. That is what we need both blog inputs and PRESS LETTERS!! ……Publicise, please!…and write to all politicians too.
This wrecking of Wales to power huge English cities MUST STOP!!
Where are the wind turbines of Shropshire, Herefordshire, Cotswolds and Hants??
They don’t exist!!……. DOES THE WIND STOP AT OFFA’S DYKE!!??
I think you mistake my reason for wanting a non-public conversation- I have been publicly fighting windfarms in Wales for 14 year and wad a key member of the team which drove National Grid out of Monfgomeryshire. We fought Britain’s largest ever punlic enqukry, at which I appeared, I did numerous media appearamces including presenting a half hour T V doc, made dozens of speeches and have ontributed to hundreds of proest meetings. Is there anything more you think I should do? Sell a kidney to fundraise?
Thanks for your excellent post on this subject Jac. As you are aware, I am involved in ongoing correspondence with Bute Energy, PEDW, and Welsh Government on a range of issues relating to wind energy projects. As always, the devil is in the detail and DNS projects are approved by the Cabinet Secretary before that detail is presented to Local Authorities in applications to discharge pre-commencement conditions. As you correctly point out Local Authorities do not have the resources to examine matters in detail or take enforcement action regarding breach of planning control. Will continue to update you on any interesting response I receive from officialdom.
As I suggest in the blog, someone needs to find out if windfarm lifespan is in any way linked to site restoration.
Pedw has written to me to say Reclamation Bonds for after life are not needed for DNS schemes only a written scheme of intent just some short time before future decommissioning. I’d like to see any scheme that shows how to easily remove the massive steel and concrete bases. They will bullshit sustainable schemes for the recycling of blades, and scrap the towers and most of the coppper wires and gear cogs of the internals of the nascelles and cover up the road tracks but the monstrous bases will be here for eternity somewhat like the Tors of Dartmoor but these in Wales will be ugly and unnatural eyesore Tors.They deserve Blue Plaques to say they were encouraged here by Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru in the early 21st century AD with Green and meek Lib Dem collaboration.
I feel fairly confident in predicting that restoration bonds from developers will not be insisted on by WG, NRW, or local authorities.
‘Operational lifespan’ for windfarms will increase to 40 or 50 years. In fact, why stop there!
No restoration bond will need to be paid until the end of the agreed ‘operational lifespan’, irrespective of how long the turbines actually last.
When we come to the end of the ‘operational lifespan’ period the companies that made the money from the turbines will be long gone.
Politicians will justify this by arguing that if harsh terms had been imposed on developers – then Wales would never have seen the benefits of these turbines!
But of course, by the time the shit hits the fan, today’s politicians will all be dead or ga-ga. (Though in the cases of many, the change will be difficult to detect.)
I believe the official line at present is that the top one-metre of concrete base will be removed. Even trying to remove one metre of high strength reinforced concrete will be a very difficult operation. The task of enforcing breach of planning condition falls to local authorities who do not have the resources to undertake enforcement work on this scale. They are reluctant to take enforcement action on smaller local residential and commercial projects. I think we are all aware that the concrete bases will remain in place in perpetuity. Image below which gives an indication of the scale of these foundation areas.