Allerdale Borough Council 2/2008/0261 Reference No: 2/2008/0261 Received: 12 March 2008 Proposed Construction of six wind turbines and associated Development: infrastructure designed to enable site access, wind monitoring and the generation of electricity for export to the Local Electricity Distribution Network Drawing Numbers: Location: Hill Farm Tallentire Cockermouth Applicant: Renewable Energy Systems UK and Ireland Ltd Constraints: Radon Assessment National Park Boundary Allerdale Flood Zone 1 British Coal Area ASCA Area ASCA Area ASCA Area ASCA Area Policies: National Planning Statements (Draft) EN-1 – National Policy Statement for Energy EN-3 – Energy Infrastructure National Planning Policies PPS22 – Renewable Energy (and the Companion Guide) PPS1 – Delivering Sustainable Development (Annexe on Climate Change) The Government has recently deleted the North West of England Plan Regional Spatial Strategy to 2021, therefore its planning policies are no longer a material planning consideration. Cumbria and Lake District Joint Structure Plan 2001- 2016 (Saved) Policy ST4 – Not applicable as the scheme constitutes a ‘small group’. Policy R44 - Renewable energy outside the Lake District National Park and AONBs Policy E34 – Areas and features of natioanl and international conservation importance. Policy E35 – Areas and features of nature conservation interest other than those of national and international conservation importance. Policy E37 - Landscape character Allerdale Local Plan, Adopted 1999 (Saved) Policy CO22 - Protection of archaeological remains Policy EN6 – Location of potentially polluting development Policy EN7 - Location of pollution sensitive development Policy EN9 – Contaminated/derelict land Policy EN17 - Safeguarding the best agricultural land Policy EN19 - Landscape Protection Policy EN20 - Protection of AONB Policy EN25 - Protecting the open countryside In addition, Cumbria County Council has produced an adopted Cumbria Wind Energy Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) which has also been adopted by Allerdale Borough Council, January 2008 (which attaches significant weight at the recent allowed appeal decision at Hellrigg, Silloth). Representations: Ministry of Defence – No objections. NATS – Object to the proposal – conflicts with their safeguarding criteria (impact on Lowther Hill). Cumbria County Council – Object to the proposal as contrary to Policies R44 and E37, with significant adverse impact on local landscape character and visual amenity of the area. Their impact on landscape character refers to the location of the six turbines in landscape character type, 5a - Lowland Ridge and Valley, and sub-type 12b - Higher Limestone (Rolling Ridge). The site is located between the Lake District National Park (to the east) and the Solway Coast AONB (on the north- west). The site occupies a side of a small summit with a minor road traversing through the turbines, resulting in two clusters of three turbines. The Cumbria Wind Energy SPD advises the site has moderate sensitivity and capacity with a capacity of up to 3-5 turbines or, exceptionally, 6-9. The County consider the exposed nature of the site, its proximity to Gilcrux and Tallentire and human scale limits the capacity of the site to accommodate wind energy schemes without significant adverse effects arising. The County observe that the applicant accepts that the proposal will have a significant effect on landscape character within 6km of the site and would introduce features that would be prominent in the local landscape. The County agree, and in addition consider that the proposal could be dominant in relation to existing lower scale elements (particularly Gilcrux), exacerbated by the exposed nature of the site, the size of the turbines against the backdrop of shelter belts in the locality of the site. Concern was also expressed on the change of character of the minor road that bisects the site due to significant loss of hedgerows (to provide visibility splays), with no evidence of their reinstatement. The County also agree that in localised points the proposal may result in significant adverse impact on the character and natural landscape designation (2.5 km to National Park, 4.5 km from the AONB) and the World Heritage site, but due to the local topography, the character of these designations (especially the National Park) would be significantly affected. The County consider the significant prominence and detrimental impact of the development to the surrounding landscape is not outweighed by the benefits that would arise from renewable energy generation. In terms of visual effect, the County observe that the applicant identified that significant effects would occur within 5km of the site which would affect the settlements of Gilcrux, Tallentire, Dovenby, Oughterside, Prospect, Aspatria, Allonby, Crosby, Townhead, Dalston, Great Broughton and Little Broughton. However, visibility in the centre of these settlements may be screened by buildings or existing trees. Limited views would occur from the National Park, Bridekirk and Cockermouth. The County, similarly to the landscape assessment, agree that there may be some localised significant impact from some parts of the national designations but overall the designations would not be significantly affected. The County conclude the proposal would have a significant impact on visual amenity with 6km of the site. The scale and exposed location of the proposal would cause a significant effect on the visual amenity of individual properties, including small scale settlements and roads. The significant impact does not outweigh the environmental renewable energy benefits of the scheme. In reference to cumulative landscape and visual impact, the County accounted for other applications under consideration at the time of the application within 30km of the site. Reference is particularly made to the Flimby application (approved), and the larger revised scheme increasing its height (allowed on appeal), plus Fleeter Wood (Tallentire) which has since been withdrawn, and Wharrels Hill (Bothel) – all within 5km. The County is concerned with the applicant’s assessment that there would be significant cumulative effects within 5km distance of the site. This would result in strong visual connections due to height, number of turbines, and area of scale with the small scale characteristics of the area. Cumulatively with existing and proposed developments this could result in 22 turbines being located in the landscape character, exceeding the landscape capacity of the area. The County agree that the cumulative impact would occur to visual effect from Plumbland, Oughterside, Prospect, Aspatria, Great Broughton and Little Broughton (which may be exacerbated in combination with other proposal schemes). It was accepted by the County that the cumulative impact from viewpoints, roads and routes would not be significant. The County therefore concluded the proposal, in conjunction with existing and proposed schemes, would reinforce the cumulative effects, collectively becoming large scale, prominent features in the landscape. They consider the cumulative harm is not outweighed by the environmental renewable energy benefits of the proposed scheme. The County also initially raised highway objections due to insufficient evidence on the highway access issues, especially on the haul route (avoiding the introduction of any rear access off the A595 by utilising the existing unclassified highway) Traffic Management Plan and crossing points on the minor road between Tallentire and Gilcrux). Amendments have been received from the applicant. The County, from an archaeological perspective, advises the site is located in an area of archaeological potential but this can be safeguarded under a planning condition for recording the archaeology of any fields. The County highlight the national and regional policies and targets for renewable energy development (including reference to the Regional Spatial Strategy emerging at the time of the consultation in 2008 which has since been deleted). The County acknowledge the merits of the scheme which contributes a further 15 mW capacity to the county targets (serving 6,700 households). They conclude the significant landscape and visual effects at the local level need to be balanced against the environmental and other benefits from the scheme but conclude, both individually and cumulatively with other existing and proposed schemes, the proposal would be unacceptable. The County Council confirm the additional evidence submitted by the applicant does not change their view on the original submission. Although a revised cumulative impact allowed for the withdrawal of some schemes, other schemes have been submitted into the planning system, therefore their grounds of impact on cumulative impact remains. Cumbria Tourism – No evidence or research by the applicant as to the effect the development will have on the value of visitor economy in the area, therefore the Environmental Impact Assessment’s comments on this issue cannot be substantiated with a number of local tourism businesses being extremely worried about the potential effects on their businesses’ long term sustainability. Dearham Parish Council – Recommend refusal on the grounds of: 1. Proximity of the turbines to Tallentire. 2. Proximity to dwellings. 3. Adverse visual impact of the 100m turbines on Tallentire Hill’s local landmark. 4. Wider visual impact of the turbines on the Solway Coast AONB and the Lakeland fells. 5. Cumulative impact with other applications