Item No 6 (a) SCOTTISH BORDERS COUNCIL PLANNING AND BUILDING STANDARDS COMMITTEE 13 JUNE 2011 APPLICATION FOR PLANNING PERMISSION ITEM: REFERENCE NUMBER: 04/02501/FUL OFFICER: Mr C Miller WARD: Selkirkshire PROPOSAL: Wind Farm comprising eight wind turbines, wind monitoring mast, connection building, site access roads, drainage infrastructure, borrow pit and temporary site compound SITE: Land at Broadmeadows Farm, Selkirk APPLICANT: GreenPower (Broadmeadows) Ltd AGENT: None SITE DESCRIPTION The site lies west of Selkirk and immediately north of the settlements of Broadmeadows and Yarrowford, comprising part of Broadmeadows Farm. In the initial application submitted in 2004, the site comprised of 390 hectares of upland sheep grazing with some conifer plantations. However, the site area has now been reduced by one third as a result of the 2010 amendment. The area containing the turbine envelope consists of the western flank of Broomy Law which rises to 463m above sea level and the side of Thorny Cleuch. Broomy Law is exceeded in height by several summits to the west including Brown Knowe, Hare Law and Wanders Knowe. The hills to the east towards the Yarrow and Tweed Valleys are lower although the Three Brethren is the same height as Broomy Law. The remainder of the site consists of rolling farmland down to the Yarrow Valley and is shaped by the valleys of several burns including the Gruntly and Old Broadmeadows Burns. The site includes several plantations on the lower slopes of Broomy Law as the access heads down via existing farm tracks then onto new works through Yarrowford to the A708 public road junction. The site was reduced in 2010 as a result of the amendment scheme, restricting the western boundary to exclude the southerly ridges of Whitehope and Hangingshaw Rigs. The turbine envelope area was reduced by one hectare. The nearest dwellinghouses to the site are located at the Broadmeadows Farm complex (including the owner’s house and Heath Cottage) and Hangingshaw to the south. Williamhope to the north of Broomy Law also contains residential property. Apart from farm tracks within the site, there are also a number of recreational walking/riding routes including the Southern Upland Way (SUW), which passes east to west outwith but close to the northern edge of the site. The Minch Moor Road lies outwith to the southern edge of the site. The site lies outwith any statutorily designated landscapes, designed historic gardens or Conservation Areas although it lies approximately 500m from the western edge of Planning & Building Standards Committee 1 Item No 6 (a) the Eildon Hills/Bowhill Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV) and about 8km from the Upper Tweeddale AGLV, both of which contain smaller National Scenic Areas (NSA) within their boundaries. It also lies close to Hangingshaw/Bowhill Historic Gardens and Designed Landscapes (HGDL) and Newark Castle/Wallace’s Trench Scheduled Monuments and Listed Buildings. PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT The proposed development has changed during the processing of this application. The original submission proposed the erection of 13 turbines giving a total output of up to 36MW. The turbines were originally located partly within the current reduced site south of Broomy Law but there were also seven turbines to the west of the current site boundary on the ridges of Whitehope Rig and Hangingshaw Rig. The location and number of turbines were altered in 2010 resulting in eight turbines being proposed in a more concentrated area between Broomy Law and Thorny Cleuch. Comparisons between the two schemes show that six of the turbines have moved only slightly whereas the two turbines at Thorny Cleuch are new and replaced the seven turbines which were originally sited on two ridges further west. The current scheme would still produce up to 20MW of electricity and the turbines would be 70m high to the hub with a blade diameter of 84m, reaching 112m from base to blade tip. In comparison, the recently refused scheme at Minch Moor proposed turbines of 100m height. They would be of modern steel and three-bladed rotor design, positioned on steel ring and concrete raft foundations with hardstandings. Each turbine base will require 350 cubic metres of concrete and measure 25 by 60m. The proposals also involve a connection building between the site and the proposed electricity route which will feed power out from the wind farm to the Yair Sub-station 10km to the east. Some tree felling will be necessary to achieve this. The connection building will be 5.3m high by 18.5m long with colours and materials still to be agreed .The electricity route to the Yair sub-station will be the subject of a separate Section 37 application to the Scottish Government. The applicant states that Scottish Power would be responsible for the route although it would be buried “where practicable” and certainly within the application site. There will also be a temporary site compound to the south of the turbine envelope adjoining Moon Plantation and a borrow pit with stone crushing facility immediately to the west. All stone needed for construction and access tracks is intended to be provided from this borrow pit. The 2010 amendment removed the on-site concrete batching plant from the proposals. The compound will measure 70 x 50m comprising of 500mm of granular material and hardcore and containing an accommodation building, fuel/water storage, generator, secure storage areas and car parking. A new anemometer is now proposed to the southern edge of the turbine envelope. Planning permission has just been granted for the retention of the existing anemometer for a further two years. The access is proposed from a single point on the A708 between Broadmeadows and Yarrowford, involving creation of a 2.5 by 120m visibility splay to avoid undue tree loss. The current proposal clarifies the fact that there will only be one site access though the previous submission had suggested a possible second access to the west at Lewenshope. The route for construction traffic will be from the A68, A6091, A7, B7014, A707 and finally onto the A708. Swept path analyses are still required to ascertain what accommodation works along these routes will be necessary and this could involve bridge parapet removal and tree canopy reduction. A Traffic Planning & Building Standards Committee 2 Item No 6 (a) Management Plan would be agreed with the Council to cover these details as well as timings, advance signage and other mitigation Within the site, there would be 6km of new site roads compared to 9.6km under the previous larger proposals. The access will be a new construction from the A708 and will rise through a deep cutting as it heads north from Yarrowford and to the west of Broadmeadows Farm. The access will then turn to the east and north alongside the Old Broadmeadows Burn before turning towards the turbines themselves. The access road will be similar to forestry track construction but wider at 5m with drainage/cable trenches. The margins of the access roads will be reinstated and re- seeded. There will also be major site drainage works in association with the construction of the development, including upslope drainage ditches, infiltration swales, two attenuation ponds (feeding into the Gruntly and Old Broadmeadows Burns), wetlands and a limited number of discharge points. Planning permission is sought for an operational life of 25 years after which time the facility will be decommissioned and the site restored to the satisfaction of the Council. PLANNING HISTORY Two wind monitoring masts have already been approved in association with this wind farm development and location. One mast was approved near to the Broomy Law summit in 2002. After two renewals in 2006 and 2008, the latter granted consent until 2013. A second mast was approved north of Whitehope Rig in 2009 and this has just received renewal for a further two year period. In considering the impacts of this development, particularly on the landscape, Members should also be aware of cumulative impact. In this regard, the Cumulative Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (CLVIA) submitted by the developers identifies, amongst other developments, the Minch Moor wind farm scheme which lay in very close proximity to the Broadmeadows site. Although the distance has now been increased as a result of the Broadmeadows amendment, the nearest turbine would have been sited just over 3.5km east of Turbine 12 in the Minch Moor scheme. Members may now be aware that the Minch Moor scheme has been determined and refused on appeal to the Scottish Government. Whilst a refused scheme (after appeal) should hold little weight in terms of assessment on cumulative impact, the proximity of the scheme and the issues identified by the Reporter leading to the refusal should be given significant weight in analysing and assessing the Broadmeadows application against National and Local Policy. The Minch Moor application for twelve turbines of slightly lesser height was refused by the Committee in August 2010 for the following reasons: 1. The proposed development is contrary to Policies I19, I20, and N9 of the Scottish Borders Structure Plan 2001-2018 and Policy D4 of the Scottish Borders Local Plan: Adopted 2009 in that: x The proposal will be located on the fringe of, and have a significantly detrimental influence on, sensitive landscape types as defined in the Borders Landscape Assessment 1995 which are of an inappropriate scale and character to accommodate the proposals successfully, due to the smaller scale nature of the landscapes, the height of the turbines compared to the height of the hills and the relatively narrow width of the Planning & Building Standards Committee 3 Item No 6 (a) ranges of hills between the valleys providing insufficient landform screening from sensitive receptors.