The piece I put out on the 10th was quite well received, it certainly encouraged some fresh information. Which tends to put what’s happening on Ireland Moor into a wider context, and factor in fresh considerations.
At 2,600 words this is a wee bit longer than recent offerings, and maybe a bit ‘denser’, but still worth sticking with.
◊
OWNERSHIP
In the previous piece I told of Scottish aristos the Duff Gordons, who inherited the Lewis estate at Harpton Court.
Ireland Moor is an upland grazing area to the east of Builth, around and perhaps above the pin in the map below. Bordered to the north by the A481 and the A44.
Let’s start in 1993, when Sir Andrew Cosmo Lewis Duff Gordon (scroll down) sold some land. Here’s a Land Registry document for title no CYM427489. There may be other titles involved. If so, they’ll likely be: WA484809, WA404806, and WA667700.
There were four buyers named in the 1993 transaction. Also, three “beneficial tenants“. More information on these can be found by clicking here.
Now we go to July 2008, and a piece from Country Life informing us regular readers that Ireland Moor was for sale. A Land Registry title document from November of that year for CYM427489 probably tells us who bought the land. (We can now assume the other titles just mentioned are involved.)
Two of the names mentioned in this sale we saw among the 1993 buyers: Edward John Francis Dashwood and Peter John Horsburgh. So in case you didn’t follow the earlier link . . .
Dashwood is descended from Hellfire Club Dashwood, who was a bit of a lad.
Dashwood was a notorious rake and prankster who had once impersonated King Charles XII of Sweden at the Russian court when Charles was Russia’s great enemy. He had also tried to seduce the Russian Tsarina Anne, and he had been banned from the Papal States, all while still in his late teens and early 20s.
On the surface, Horsburgh is a devout environmentalist and trustee of the Wye and Usk Foundation. But he’s also a director of companies under the ETF umbrella, companies that profit hugely from – net zero.
Which makes perfect sense.
Organisations set up to ‘protect’ our rivers – especially in Wales – blame farmers for any and all pollution in those rivers. Environmentalists see farting cows as an obstacle to the target of net zero. Which pressurises politicians to work against livestock farming.
Environmentalism is not really about Greta Thunberg and brainwashed kids throwing paint over old masters. That’s all a distraction. ‘Environmentalism’ is major corporations seeking investments. And near the top of their ‘Dear Santa‘ list is land to be exploited for ‘carbon capture’ greenwashing and ‘natural capital’.
This Land Registry document from June 5, 2009, confirms the November 2008 sale, but without naming the buyers. Though it does tell us the four titles were involved, reveals the sale price of £900,000, gives Ireland Moor Ltd as the owner, with a Jersey company number (103322), and an address in Bristol.
Does this suggest the November 2008 buyers are now the Jersey company?
Possibly, and the third buyer might provide the clue.
◊
CONNECTIONS APPEAR
For this is James Warren Kent, one of the ‘beneficial tenants’ in the 1993 deal. Naturally, I got to wondering who Mr Kent is, and what he gets up to.
I found he’s the sole director of Q Branch Investments Ltd. A company in the business of “letting and operating of own or leased real estate“. Though the company is owned by Benjamin Mark Peter Whitfield. Possibly living in Switzerland.
Looking more closely at Q Branch Investments I saw three outstanding charges.
One of them with the Conon Group, up in Auld Reekie, a city we visit regularly on this blog. I would guess the two directors of this financially healthy undertaking are the elderly parents of Benjamin Whitfield.
The other two charges are held by Roger Charles Adams. And this is where it gets rather interesting. For Adams is a director of RSK Environment Ltd, operating out of an address south of the river in Glasgow. Part of the RSK Group.
A bell rang when I saw ‘RSK’, “a global leader in the delivery of sustainable solutions“.
Let’s go back to this piece I put out a week before Christmas last, and scroll down to the section ‘Globalist Land Grab?’ about the ‘Welsh Government’s Sustainable Farming Scheme. Where you can read:
Tracing the ownership of RSK ADAS eventually gets us to Los Angeles and “global alternative investment manager” the Ares Management Corporation. You may not be surprised to learn that among the largest of Ares’ shareholders we find both BlackRock and Vanguard.
Someone who got a mention was Canadian Dr Liz Lewis-Reddy. She’s worked for RSK for 7 years, and before that spent 11 years at Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust.
Dr Lewis-Reddy was a co-author of the ‘Welsh Government’s Potential economic effects of the Sustainable Farming Scheme.
Her career seems to be another example of getting farmers off the land so that ‘alternative investment’ corporations can make fortunes from saving the planet.
So let’s recap. James Warren Kent, who is or was one of the owners of Ireland Moor, gets loans for his company from Roger Charles Adams, a man who works for a company that does contracts for both the ‘Welsh Government’ and Bute Energy. (Yes, Bute Energy.)
What’s the likelihood of that happening by chance?
But now it gets a little more complicated.
◊
MORE ON OWNERSHIP
I’ve mentioned Ireland Moor Ltd, the company said to own the land in the LR title document of June 5, 2009.
That checks out with the Jersey filings.
Here’s the Jersey Document of Incorporation for Ireland Moor Ltd, May 2009. It mentions two companies holding 45 shares each.
This ‘Persons Holding Shares’ filing for January 1, 2018, informs us that Edward Warren Filmer of Venezuela is now the sole shareholder.
Finally, here’s the winding up document for Ireland Moor Ltd dated February 23, 2018.
(Let me express my gratitude to the person who dug out, paid for, and then forwarded these and other documents to me.)
There was a problem identifying Edward Warren Filmer. But he does exist. Here he is mentioned in his father’s Will as ‘Edward Warren Filmer Cabrera’.
Which suggests his mother is from a Spanish-speaking country and her maiden name was Cabrera. Which ties in with him living in Venezuela.
This Jersey company seems to have been succeeded by Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd, run by the four sons of Sir Andrew Cosmo Lewis Duff Gordon who, you’ll recall, sold the land in 1993. (And died in April 2023.)
It seems the land was sold to the Duff Gordons in December 2015. The relevant LR titles are: WA484809 (no plan available), WA404806 (no plan available), WA667700 (with plan), and CYM427489 (with plan).
Edward Warren Filmer Cabrera remains something of a mystery man. How did he get involved? I couldn’t help notice that he shares a middle name, ‘Warren’, with the guy named in the Ireland Moor purchase in November 2008, James Warren Kent.
Could they be brothers? Cousins?
We must assume that Ireland Moor Ltd of Jersey owned the land of that name because the Duff Gordon boys bought Ireland Moor from that company.
Though I’m convinced things may not be quite as they appear when it comes to Ireland Moor. I say that because there is something on the Companies House filings that’s a real puzzle.
Go to the Land Registry title documents for which I’ve given links, above, and you’ll see a panel similar to the one below. It says the sale was concluded December 15, 2015.
Which tallies with the December 2015 date given on the company’s outstanding debt with Edward Warren Filmer and Ireland Moor Ltd.
Yet if we scroll down that charge document, to page 16, we see the panel below. Which says the titles were transferred to Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd in May 2015!
That’s two months before Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd was formed!
I’m open to suggestions for this curiosity. But I will not accept ‘time travel’.
Whatever the answer, with Ireland Moor Ltd dissolved, then (on paper at least) the Duff Gordons owe the outstanding debt for the land to Señor Edward Warren Filmer Cabrera of Venezuela.
Whoever he might be.
◊
THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL
The LR documents say the Duff Gordons bought Ireland Moor in December 2015, the purchase part-financed with a loan from Filmer-Ireland Moor Ltd.
This is something I’ve come across before, but usually when assets are moved between partners, or within a group of companies.
The charge dated that same month says:
Which suggests the Duff Gordons handed over £560,000 as a down payment.
Then they took out two further loans, in December 2016 with Lloyds Bank. Normally when I see this (and almost always when the Development Bank of Wales is involved) the newer loans are used to pay off older debts. But not, it seems, in this case.
The accounts don’t help much. Below I’ve taken the ‘headlines’ from the first accounts filed by Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd. (Actually, ‘unaudited financial statements’.)
The first ‘accounts’, to July 31, 2016, make sense. ‘Fixed assets’, £1,231,914, is obviously Ireland Moor. ‘Creditors’, at £678,158, is the debt owed to Filmer and Ireland Moor Ltd plus a few odds and ends.
But a year later, and after the loans from Lloyds Bank, the ‘accounts’ show the amount owed to ‘creditors’ down from £678,158 to £191,078.
This could be explained by taking on the new debt and then paying off what was owed to Filmer and Ireland Moor Ltd. But that didn’t happen. For Companies House shows the Filmer-Ireland Moor charge is still ‘outstanding’.
The most recent accounts, to July 31, 2023, are equally confusing. Despite no new charge registered, the amount owed to creditors shot up from £693,676 in 2022 to £1,287,026. Almost the whole increase explained (page 7) as “other creditors“.
With the amount in the kitty going down, down, down every year. To the point where, in the 2023 accounts, Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd is in the red.
And where’s the £600,000 grant from the Powys Moorland Partnership? I can’t see that showing in the accounts.
Seeing as, “This project is funded from the Sustainable Management Scheme under the Welsh Government’s Rural Communities Rural Development Programme”, ‘Welsh Government’ should be insisting on ‘fuller’ accounts.
Is Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd being used for purposes other than the conservation of Ireland Moor?
◊
SEEING AS THIS IS POWYS . . .
. . . you just know wind turbines might be involved. And that means another trip to Edinburgh, where we find those behind Bute Energy. But don’t be fooled by that – for Bute is definitely a Welsh company!
Back in 2018 or 2019 our wonderful ‘Welsh Government’ commissioned Arup’s Bristol office to identify areas that would be suitable for solar and wind energy.
The approach seems to have been, ‘Anywhere outside national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty will be OK’. Which was a disaster, and betrayed Arup’s ignorance of Wales.
For example, Arup declared almost the whole of Ynys Môn to be perfect for wind turbines . . . until the RAF reminded them there are jets, helicopters and other craft taking off and landing every day.
The mess was eventually sorted by RenewableUK, whose suggestion for the area we’re interested in (top right) was used in the final version (bottom right) of ‘Future Wales The National Plan 2040‘.
That said, the ‘Welsh Government’ and corporate investors are very ‘flexible’ when it comes to the selected areas. To put it bluntly, other than NPs and AONBs (and of course, Ynys Môn), you can put up wind and solar farms anywhere.
Which is why, despite Ireland Moor being outside designated area 7, I wouldn’t rule out wind turbines appearing.
Because not far away, on Aberedw Hill (circled on the left), which is also outside the designated area, Bute Energy is planning an ‘energy park’, and has an agreement with landowner Harry Legge-Bourke.
Reminding us that when it comes to ‘renewables’, Wales is open range; so we can definitely add wind turbines to the mix of possibilities for Ireland Moor.
The threats afflicting our countryside are very similar no matter where we look. Though more pronounced near the central border, partly due to the machinations of the wildlife trusts in Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire.
◊
THE PERFECT STORM
Welsh livestock farming, and with it the Welsh family farm, a supporting pillar of Welsh language and culture, is under threat as never before. That threat comes in a number of guises, but all can be traced back to the Globalist ambition to control what we eat and where it comes from.
Additionally, a whole political class has been won over to the lunacy of a ‘climate crisis’, not because it’s true, but because it gives them a ’cause’, and it gives them some kind of moral authority.
A natural-born asshole gets a kick out of bossing people around. But when saving the planet, or fighting racism, is introduced, then a natural-born asshole becomes a morally superior being . . . and a bigger asshole!
Western thought has been corrupted by these caped crusaders, and all done by stealth. We elect politicians on vague, ‘something for everybody’ manifestos . . . and then the pressure groups we did not elect get to work on them.
If it’s not the pressure groups then – and certainly here in Wales – it’s the civil servants ‘advising’ our politicians. Men like Andrew Slade, who’s been a malign influence in Corruption Bay for too long.
It doesn’t matter whether Ireland Moor sees grouse shooting, wind turbines (to supply England), rewilding, greenwashing (or a combination of the four), it’s clear they will all have political backing – because they undermine farming.
And the farmers understand the threats. This is what one wrote to me:
I can’t tell how important that grazing is to hill farmers like us, we can’t afford down country grass keep, it will reduce our flocks down to a fraction, we are running on fumes as it is. And the sheep, they are old bloodlines it’s taken generations to get them hefted and thriving, I despair, and goodness knows what horrors await us in the budget, another local boy hung himself the other day, I fear there is going to be a lot more, and all the old farmers I go and visit are about in tears thinking all they have worked for and sacrificed for will be take from them and their grand-children won’t get the chance to have roots in the area where they belong, I could bloody cry.
What we see on Ireland Moor and elsewhere is plutocrats orchestrating those they fund and control against livestock farming so as to release land for corporate gain.
Their motto is, I’m told: ‘The countryside needs hedge funds not hedges.’
The ‘Welsh Government’ agrees. Politicians who’ve spent 25 years serving agendas that sound noble in the abstract but, in practice – from Port Talbot to the Powys uplands – always work against the interests of local people.
Ireland Moor is modern Wales in microcosm. Among all those you’ve read about, the ones losing out will be the ones born and raised there, who went to school in the area, who graze their animals on the moor.
For me, the lesson from Ireland Moor – and it can be applied across Wales – is this: Socialists in Corruption Bay are driving small farmers off the land so that land can be taken over by foreign corporations, landed families, and enviroshysters.
Reminding us that socialism always was a lie. The betrayal of the urban working class, and now the war on small farmers, exposes that lie to the world.
♦ end ♦
© Royston Jones 2024
Rather disturbed to see that you are hostile to an article which states that “climate change disproportionately affects marginalised communities”. Climate change as defined by the array of fantasists and doomsday ecofascists is the core driver of the multitude of land grabs and indiscriminate industrialisation of our rural landscapes. These areas are homes to communities which have been either forgotten or abused by the Welsh government since 1999. UK Government didn’t go far out of its way to enable farming and other segments of our rural communities to plan for the medium or long term. The current regimes have no regard whatsoever, just mouth a load of platitudes about sustainability blah blah, and look the other way as hedge funds and other unsavoury corporate entities make rich pickings with carbon credits, green wash and other net zero scams.
Perhaps we should write to these Voices of Resilience congratulating them on their refreshing insight and ask them to lob a few quid towards safeguarding our rural communities from the predatory antics of International capitalism.
This is one scam built upon another. Race grifters capitalising on the climate crisis nonsense. But even if we assume they’re right, and ‘marginalised communities’ will be affected worse, then the largest of those communities is poor white people. Who speaks for them?
But it’s all bollocks. The truth of it is: ‘I’m not white – give me money’.
Distressed farmer in North Sir Gar is not even guaranteed a Minimum Wage/Living Wage. He’s told cos he’s self employed he has to fend for himself. That sounds pretty much “marginalised” to me. Have you got contact details for Voice of Resilience and I’ll drop them a line asking for further and better details of how my distressed farmer can secure financial support from them and assistance in defending his/her birthright so that future generations can also work the land. Future Generations ! – that should ring a bell or three among the denizens of the Bay Bubble.
What a great day seeing the I-liberal leftie woke un-limited immigration mob crying because of the events in the USA election..
Next stop Wales in 2026 & UK elections 2029.
I think the UK elections could come before 2029.
One thing for sure, if you are looking for a team to screw up a massive working majority with a series of ill thought out moves that blight an already ailing economy then Starmer Reeves and Co must be first names on the sheet. I still think they’ll manage a few years but 5 maybe beyond them.
I still can’t access Twitter so I’ll ask on here.
Saw your comment on the reclamation of tips and its relevance to a similar situation arising when clapped out ageing wind farms need “clearing”. Did any of the enthusiastic fanboys of wasteful wind technology respond with an articulate description of how such works might be undertaken ? or did you get an “it’ll be alright on the night” type of response?
Or was it the stony silence one associates with pricks who don’t know what they are doing and are too busy working out how much they are likely to make out of skinning the public purse and inflated energy pricing in the consumer market ?
There is a marked reluctance on the part of officialdom to give satisfactory answers on this matter. As you suggest, they believe we should just trust them. The person making the enquiries is not letting it lie, and is prepared to pursue it beyond NRW if need be.
Interesting to read that report about the devastating power interruptions at Broken Hill OZ. Of course it can’t happen here cos Ed the bacon munching Twat and his co conspirators have denied that possibility and that settles it for those devotees of the more warped versions of the green gospels. His smug ugly mug was giving the game away during Rachel’s demented Budget speech yesterday. He’s power crazy and totally warped. Tough times ahead unless this nonsense gets derailed.
If I were looking to buy up the Welsh countryside to plant trees right now I would not be giving money to environmental groups. Instead I would be giving all my support to the NFU/FUW in their efforts to remove any tree planting requirements from the Sustainable Farming Scheme.
That would assure that more farms go out of business (we already lose a large amount each year) and there’s plenty of opportunities for me to buy up cheap land as a result and make money off the tree planting funding pots in place that so many farmers don’t want to touch.
I suspect the farming unions will be successful in this regard. Little do they seem to realise that they are slowly killing the sector they claim to protect.
Brilliant work again Jac! And memories of our town being the most bent…two council leaders in succession enjoying her majesty’s hospitality…
I was amused (?) at a recent news bulletin. Asked about the piss poor performance of the UK’s water companies, not least unreliability and pollution, a spokesman for the industry pointed to telephone number salaries, ditto bonuses, lack of investment and obscene amounts of dividends paid to (non) UK shareholders.
Er…sorry. I must have mis-heard. According to the spokesman, the cause of all these problems is of course global warming.
What would they do without it?
Talking of those days, Ian Bone got in touch a few years back. At the time he was making a nuisance of himself in London. We reminisced a bit about PH and a few others. A real blast fom the past.
But you’re right about the universal application of global warming. Everything from ingrowing toenails to the end of humanity can be blamed on – global warming!
Given that everything seems to be cyclical I’m developing some concerns about all these folk who get very bothered by, inter alia, global warming, climate change and net zero. How will they cope if the cycle turns down and we get chills, CO2 deficits and fuel shortages because the wind turbines have seized up, the solar panels don’t get enough rays and all the oil wells and coal mines are sealed up? Now that will be a proper net zero and most of the frightfully sensitive tossers will be shivering their bollocks off in multi layered fleeces as wool will have disappeared when sheep got banned !
Excellent journalism, Jac! It looks like every fanatical movement with an axe to grind against any system that is not woke are rounding their wagons to destroy an industry, which is agriculture.
Livestock farming is under siege from all directions, from enviro loonies like Dale Vince, the multi millionaire ex hippie – who donated 4 million to the Labour party! Also, he is fervent to abolish livestock farming because of farting and belching cows and sheep. There is a long list of Vince’s ilk donating and lobbying this goverment, just to get us farmers off our land. Dale also owns a football club…Forrest Green Rovers. He’s turned the canteen vegan, and last season were relegated from the footbal league! You could not make it up Jac!
Us farmers are a tough lot but, with constant bullying from these bodies which know nothing about how farming works, coupled with a government which is willing to take anyone’s money who offers it, then the future looks dark and hungry, for all..
The problem is, Eifion, they don’t need to know anything about farming. That’s because it’s not really about farting cows and the environment (though some might be stupid enough to believe that nonsense) it’s about land ownership and control of the food supply.
At the moment the opposition to Globalism is fragmented. There are some focusing on illegal immigration, some on net zero, some fighting the ‘women with penises’ nonsense, with farmers rather isolated. People need to realise that these issues are related. We’re all facing the same enemy. And we’d have more chance of victory if we realised that.
With the budget on Wednesday; and the mooted point of the abolition of agricultural inheritance tax relief to farmers/land owners, then the globalists will have plenty of prime welsh land to snap up! No way will farming as we know it will survive that earthquake, Jac..
Tax relief on farms is justified just as there is relief on the passing of certain other business assets. What successive governments have failed to do to close the gaping loopholes where loads of toffs and well heeled spivs have contrived to max out on the reliefs by investing in those assets that qualify for exemption. So if the new Labour regime had any asgwrn cefn all it has to do is redefine clearly what qualifies ( proper farming & legit businesses) and what doesn’t ( spivs, toffs, wide boys and all the other clinker bobbing about our country). But that asgwrn cefn isn’t there so just keep looking for other ways to duck and dive. One thing for sure Rachel won’t shut the gate on her elite friends so your advisers should look at what those elite types are doing and modify their moves to suit your circumstances.
I suppose that if us farmers want to keep our farms, and the welsh countryside alive with traditional wellbeing, then we should pool resources and donate more money to the Labour party than the likes of Dale Vince…
Well, I’ve just heard that Reeves has limited the allowances on inheritance tax reliefs. Of course she made a big thing of setting aside the first £1million as an exemption which isn’t much when one considers land values ( driven higher by speculators) and all the other assets that are necessary to engage in a viable agriculture business. So it becomes even more important for farmers to ensure as much life time sharing of assets among their likely inheritors. Of course each set of circumstances will differ but being armed with a plan is better than no plan at all.
That element of the budget could have been dictated by BlackRock and Vanguard.
Certainly not dictated by any affection for the sector. To the uninformed the £1 million allowance/relief is a big number but as I said in my response to Eifion it’s no big amount really. It will in reality create insecurity and uncertainty leading to vulnerability to a forced choice like – ” Do I cash in now or risk the allowances being eroded even further in due course ?”.
I wonder what Blackrock and Vanguard will do with the land that I will be forced to sell to pay the government once my mother passes away and leaves me to find this 20% tax above £1m?
Trees, trees and more trees and no doubt they’ll find a place into which they’ll shove solar arrays. Oh and the odd turbine or two if there’s any space left over. The house and yard will be converted to other uses, with some going as country retreats for politicians, banksters and green energy “entrepreneurs”. Orwell never saw this lot coming.
Yes, Dafis! This is already happening in my parish. Two farms, within view of our farm in Pumsaint, have already gone that way – with many other also gone the same way! And this is before yesterday’s robbery!
We’ll need to widen this path soon ! I’m feeling a bit squeezed here. Anyway back to your fears and concerns Eifion. As some of our old comrades used to say 20 or more years ago – Dal dy dir – although our concern then was about goodlifers and others moving in and swamping Y Fro Gymraeg with Anglo culture. Now it’s banksters and Milliband’s green gospel disciples ! Holding on is the best option but that’s easier for me to say at some distance. I hear that Clarkson advised farmers in England to ride out 5 years and these fake socialists would be slung out at next GE. 5 years is a long time to manage anxiety but keep an eye on your bank manager and suppliers. If any of those start acting a bit odd challenge them, don’t let them change your relationship in any way that further disadvantages you.
A brilliant summing up; diolch Royston. Keep it up!
Kind of you to say so, Caroline.
Croeso.
Jac. You refer to Aberedw energy park by Bute Energy. For your information, I sent letter below to Bute Energy 24 September on this proposed project. Currently awaiting reply.
Aberedw Wind Energy Park Project Team
Bute Energy
Hodge House
Guildhall Place
Cardiff
CF10 1DY
My Ref: NCC/WJ/195/BE
Your Ref: DNS 03010-F0X0Q1
Date: 24 September 2024
Dear Project Team
Subject: Aberedw Wind Energy Park
I refer to your proposed industrial wind energy park as outlined on location plan in Annex 1 below.
I have noted the content of EIA Scoping Direction from PEDW and would be pleased to receive your response to enquiries as set out below under the respective sub-headings.
Project owner
Is your subsidiary company the project owner or is the project owned by your parent company?
Policy 17 and 18 Future Wales National Plan 2040
Is your proposed site located within a pre-assessed area, pursuant to Welsh Government Policy 17 Future Wales National Plan 2040?
Drainage Strategy
Is an “Outline Drainage Strategy” for your proposed site currently available for public scrutiny?
Local Authority Ordinary Watercourse Consent.
The drainage impact of your proposal has not, to date, been assessed by Local Authorities under the provisions of Land Drainage Act 1991. The Act gives powers to local authorities to manage and maintain land drainage systems, and to take action to prevent flooding and protect the environment. The Act requires consent to be obtained before works are carried out that affect the flow of water in a watercourse. What is your target date for applying for Local Authority “Ordinary Watercourse Consent“?
Riparian rights and obligations
As the land, within the curtilage of your application site, is not owned by Bute Energy, please confirm whether common law rights and obligations and statutory rights of riparian landowners are to be transferred to Bute Energy under the terms of option / lease agreements with landowners?
Local Authority SAB Approval
SAB (SuDS Approving Body) approval is a statutory requirement for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in Wales. The SAB is responsible for ensuring that drainage proposals for new developments meet the national standards for sustainable drainage published by Welsh Ministers [now known as Cabinet Secretaries]. Applications are normally processed in advance of – or in tandem with – planning applications as drainage and flood risk are material planning considerations. What is your target date for applying for Local Authority SAB approval under Floods and Water Management Act 2010?
Water Supply for Fire Fighting purpose
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service are required to take “reasonable measures” for securing that an adequate supply of water will be available for fire fighting in the event of a fire within the curtilage of your proposed industrial wind energy site; pursuant to S.38 [1] of Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. Your site is not served by a mains water network with associated fire hydrants. How do you propose to provide an adequate water supply for fire fighting purpose? An image of a typical fire on an industrial wind energy site is provided in Annex 2 below.
Planning Obligations under S.106 Town & Country Planning Act 1990
Has Bute Energy entered into any S.106 planning obligations with the local authority?
Option Agreements and Lease Agreements with landowners
Has Bute Energy executed option agreements and / or lease agreements with landowners located within the curtilage of your proposed development site as outlined on location plan?
Legal Agreements with Highway Authority
What legal agreements with Highway Authority will be required under S.38, S.184 or S.278 of Highways Act 1980 to modify public highways to enable materials – including large turbine blades – to be transported to your proposed development site?
Visualisations and Photomontages
Various proposed wind energy site developers are working to different standards with regard to presentation of visualisations and photomontages published on their websites and in documentation presented in support of planning applications to PEDW. What standard has been used by Bute Energy with regard to presentations of Visualisations and Photomontages?
Biodiversity
With regard to biodiversity, is there a requirement for Bute Energy to apply for “NRW mitigation licence”?
Construction [Design and Management] Regulations 2015
Your proposed project is a notifiable construction project under the Construction [Design and Management] Regulations 2015. Has Bute Energy notified the Health and Safety Executive [HSE] using their online form F10 and provided details of your Principal Designer?
Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP)
Is a draft CEMP for your proposed project currently available for public scrutiny?
Secondary Consents
Possible secondary consents – under The Developments of National Significance (Specified Criteria and Prescribed Secondary Consents) (Wales) Regulations 2016 – are set out below.
Please advise, which of the above secondary consents apply to your proposed development site: to be processed either by PEDW or other consenting authority?
Public Rights of Way [PRoW]
When does Bute Energy intend to publish a “Public Right of Way Path Management Plan” for the public footpath network located within the curtilage of your application site? When does Bute Energy propose to initiate the separate legal process of diverting and / or closing Public Rights of Way [PRoW] located within the curtilage of your application site? This is a legal process administered by Local Authorities under Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000 and S.257 Town & Country Planning Act 1990.
Decommissioning and Land Reclamation Bond
A bond for decommissioning a wind farm is an important aspect of ensuring responsible and environmentally friendly decommissioning of wind farms constructed on private or public land. It provides financial security for the project owner and ensures that the land is restored to its original condition at the end of operational life. A bond relieves the burden from the land owners and taxpayers ensuring responsibility for proper decommissioning rests with the project owner. The required amount for a decommissioning bond is determined by several factors, including: environmental liabilities, decommissioning costs, reclamation costs, business and personal financial statements and benefits. Is a decommissioning and land reclamation plan for your proposed project currently available for public scrutiny? Is a bond administered by your subsidiary company or by your parent company?
I understand your DNS planning application will be submitted to PEDW in the Spring of 2025. Your response to the enquiries set out above will inform my future representations to PEDW during the public representation stage of the DNS planning process.
I look forward to your response, and observations, at your convenience. Thank you.
Yours sincerely
Bloody hell, Wynne, that’s impressive! They must love you down the Bay. Aberedw is definitely not within a ore-assessed area. It wasn’t even in the area outlined by Arup. The reply might be interesting.
I normally have to send several reminders before a response is received. Bute Energy has acknowledged receipt.
That’s a start.
Very impressive @Wynne (if it’s alright to call you Wynne – I’m afraid your surname hasn’t come up in your comment). I sent in around 31 emails before the closing date for the consultation on Nant Mithil Energy Park. Each email raised one separate point. That’s how I was advised to proceed. I haven’t had a single response. I can only assume (fingers crossed) that B(r)ute have been so inundated with objections to not only Nant Mithil, but also Aberedw Hill, Bryn Gilwern and some of their other mid and mid-West Wales proposals that they can’t cope. I also copied Julie James, MS, James Evans MS, at the time, Fay Jones, MP and various other MS’s. The single one of all of those who made the effort (or his advisers/officials) to answer and not just produce a standard answer was Evans.
Hi Caroline. I am involved in ongoing correspondence with Bute Energy and PEDW on Nant Mithil, Aberedw and Bryn Gilwen proposed projects. They are struggling to respond to technical questions. They are also probably trying to “kick the can down the road for as long as possible” hoping that planning permission will be granted before they have to address other issues that require consent. I am also corresponding with RWE on Gaerwen project and Coriolis on Y Bryn project. As you say, they may be buried under paperwork.
That’s something that always comes across when WG or ‘developers’ are asked the awkward questions – they have no answers because they never expected to be asked these questions. Confirming that it’s all been arranged with a wink and a nod. ‘You want a wind farm? Just go ahead. Here’s a fag packet, just scribble something on the back of it‘.
Well @Wynne, we are all very grateful to people like you who have the expertise and persistence. If Bute are struggling, all I can say is: good. So much the better. But let’s hope they aren’t right in thinking that somehow they can just bury the bad news and get their PP all the same. Time will tell, though I doubt I’ll survive long enough to see it. My husband will have to take up the reins more for our little bit of Radnorshire once I’m gone. Diolch eto.
Are the Labour Party socialists?
They like to think so.
Labour Party in Wales operates like an organised crime group – setting up deals, fixing things for friends and allies, removing obstacles. They don’t stand up for working people, attending to those services that are central to our quality of life. Instead they advance the interests of an array of corrupt and irrelevant businesses and influencers. All done at a hell of a cost.
At a local level Labour’s always been like that. I stood for Swansea council when Swansea had “the best councillors money can buy“. But that was simple, selfish greed, a few favours here and there, a free meal, the odd backhander. But where we are now is scary, because it’s driven by idiots who’ve fallen for a scam.
So even when they realise the climate crisis is bullshit, and they appreciate the real cost of net zero, they’ll find it hard to change tack without admitting they were wrong. And gullible. People don’t like admitting that, even to themselves. Those pushing the scam are counting on this.
Net zero may be the main threat right now but there is a wider decay in that politicians in general, and Labour in particular, seem obsessed with fostering even stronger bonds between big government and big business, despite 60+ years of evidence that it does nothing positive for the general public. This is a variant of totalitarianism, rule by a small cluster where there is excessive and malign concentrations of power.
The soft pedalling with TATA is a most recent example but it also crops up in the repeated awards of public service contracts to some of the most defective corporates ever created by man. They are allowed to get too big to fail, just like those banksters back in 2008-10, which Osborne and Cameron failed to rectify.
Tata was a predictable tragedy. But we’ve been here before. Brymbo made steel for almost 200 years. It had a full order book for its specialist steel. Along came a Sheffield company (United Steels?) and took it over. Transferred the work to its English plants and closed Brymbo in 1990.
At the end of the day, for any country to have a healthy economy, it must rely on locally-owned industries and companies. These will not be imperious to global trends, but at least it will avoid ‘branch factory’ syndrome, where far-flung parts of major companies close first.
Labour in Wales has learnt nothing. When it bought into wind turbines it could have encouraged the growth of an indigenous base, providing jobs, keeping money in Wales. But no, let everything be done outside Wales, let the jobs be outside Wales, and let the profits flow out of Wales.
There are just so many reasons for hating Labour, and socialism in general.
TATA was predictable. All the more reason for politicians ay several levels should have been aware of risks and armed with a plan or better still an array of plans/options. Instead we got loads of wet, supine acceptance of the “inevitable”, which was O.K for London because they now see Wales as their major energy park. But where were the Opposition politicians? All away attending debates about saving some uninhabited island other side of the world, slagging off some aspiring native overseas for daring to dig some big holes looking for minerals (unless of course he/she was looking for lithium), or waving a multicoloured flag in support of their favoured E,D,&I ishoo ?
So at this point in time we have a hollowed out steel industry while the BRICS have a fuckin’ good laff, and we have a growing, thriving distraction sector which can lay on any old ishoo you care to ask for employing all sorts of useless chancers who would otherwise be unemployed. The economy of the future, first seen in Wales.
Don’t worry, this lunacy will soon end. They can’t run economies into the ground because it’s demanded by some airy-fairy theory that we have to accept on faith. The costs of net zero are finally being realised. The German political establishment is already under pressure over immigration, now VW is closing three plants in Germany.
The only way I can see socialism having a hand in this sort of extraction of wealth and opportunity, is via its antipathy to nationalism in a general, ‘workers of the world unite’ sense, or through the more specific prism of Labour being a unionist party standing against the ‘petty nationalism’ of complaining about jobs moving to England.
It’s glaringly obvious to anyone in possession of something so abstract as a map of our country, that Wales is completely and utterly an extractive entity. Just look at overwhelming thrust of the road and rail networks.
So true.