Reference No: 2/2007/0076 Received: 29/01/2007 Proposed Erection of four wind turbines and associated infrastructure Development: and services including site road, crane pads, substation control building and temporary construction compound, as amended by letter received on 30 April 2007. Drawing Numbers: Location: Park Head Farm Silloth Applicant: N Power Renewables Ltd Constraints: Allerdale Flood Zone 1 Allerdale Flood Zone 2 Allerdale Flood Zone 3 Policies: Government guidance on renewables is contained in PPS22: Renewable Energy and the companion guide that goes with it. It includes advice on proposals close to nationally designated areas i.e. AONB’s. The Draft Regional Spatial Strategy Policy EM17 sets out acceptability criteria for renewable energy proposals. County Structure Plan Policy ST4 sets criteria for considering major development. Policy R44 sets criteria for renewable energy proposals. Policy E34 considers areas of nature conservation importance and confirms that the setting of AONB’s should be taken into account. Policy E36 considers landscapes of County Importance and Policy E37 again looks to safeguard landscape character. Allerdale Local Plan EN19 considers landscape protection, EN20 looks to protect the AONB, EN22 protects county landscapes and EN25 protects the open countryside. Policy CO24 protects the setting of Hadrians Wall World Heritage Site. Wind Energy Development in Cumbria (SP9 1997). Cumbria Wind Energy SPD – Allerdale Borough Council have resolved to adopt this document. The appraisal of the proposal undertaken on behalf of the Council has used the document as a framework for identifying sensitivities and issues specific to wind energy development. Representations: Dundraw Parish Council – No objections but concerned that “… dotting them around the countryside does spoil our area”. Holme Abbey – Recommend refusal – impact on AONB, impact on tourism and the local economy, number of other comments, health, low flying, distraction to motorists, TV, local roads, precedent, wildlife, lack of need. Holme St Cuthberts – Recommend refusal – impact on AONB, SSSI, detrimental to tourism, impact on wildlife, low frequency noise, highways, infrastructure. Silloth Town Council – Recommend refusal – harmful to AONB and landscape, visual intrusion. Carlisle Airport – No objections. Cumbria County Council – Offer an objection and consider the proposal would cause significant harm to the landscape character and visual setting of the Solway Coast AONB. Fire Officer – No objections. CPRE (Cumbria) – Object – landscape, visual impact on AONB and recreational routes. Solway Coast AONB Partnership – Object – landscape and visual impact, impact on wildlife, cumulative impact. Ramblers Association – Impact on AONB and a variety of national, European and international designations; would seriously detract from recreational routes. NATS – No safeguarding objection. Cumbria Wildlife Trust – Object – collision risk, disturbance/displacement of birds, direct habitat loss, inadequate monitoring. County Archaeologist – No objections subject to condition. English Heritage – No objection - consider that the World Heritage Site landscape will not be affected. Environment Agency – No objections subject to conditions. Arqiva Ltd – No objections – will not affect broadcast. Civil Aviation Authority – No objections. MoD – No objections. The application has been advertised on site and within the local press. 11 letters of support have been received for the proposal. Approximately 1080 letters of objection have been received. Many, but not all, are in the form of a standard letter. Of the letters some 78% are from within Allerdale, 10% from the rest of Cumbria, and 12% from outside of Cumbria. Matters referred to generally consider the impact on the area and the AONB, impact on tourism and businesses, impact on wildlife, lack of benefit, the cumulative impact of this scheme and others is referred to. Stanwix Park Holiday Centre has submitted a letter objection to the proposal, referring to the impact on business and other tourist establishments; precedent; and refers to number of existing wind turbine developments in Allerdale. The letter includes a petition headed, “I object to the proposed wind farm development” which is signed by 380 people. REPORT This application proposes the erection of 4 wind turbines with a hub height of up to 80m and an overall height of up to 121m. Each would have a 2MW capacity, which it is said could meet the electricity needs of around 3,950 households. There are around 1400 households in the Silloth area. The development is approximately 3km to the south-east of Silloth. It lies 2km outside of the boundary of the Solway Coast AONB and close to the setting of the Hadrians Wall World Heritage Site. The site is bisected by a minor road. Access to the site is along the C2015 road to the east of Parkhead Farm. An access track of around 6m wide would be constructed to connect each turbine. Also included are a single storey ancillary building, temporary crane hard standings and a construction compound. A 50m anemometer mast is proposed next to one of the turbines. The application is for a 25 year period. In October 2004 permission was refused for 6 turbines at this site for eight reasons, which all referred to the inadequacies of the submitted Environmental Impact Assessment and issues relating to landscape and visual impact, impact on residential amenity, impact on the AONB, impact on Hadrians Wall WHS, impact on protected wildlife conservation areas, cumulative with other schemes, impact on archaeological sites, impact on local highway network. The planning application was submitted in January 2007. The application is supported by an Environmental Impact Assessment and supporting documents that are available for inspection. By reason of the number of objections and the fact that a group representing those opposed to the development exists (Silloth on Solway Action Committee), letters inviting people to attend the meeting to speak have not been sent to all objectors but just the Action Committee. This is at variance to normal practice. As part of the consideration of the proposal, an independent appraisal of the landscape and visual issues raised by the application was commissioned. A detailed assessment has been received and is available for inspection. 8 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 8.1 These conclusions respond to the landscape related planning considerations identified in Section 3 of this report and are structured accordingly. In some areas the findings cannot be entirely conclusive due to a lack of information in the ES and its supplements. Siting and Design 8.2 The main locational draw back of this site is its close proximity to and central location between the northern and southern sections of the Solway Coast AONB (1.8 and 2.7km respectively) rendering a large part of the designated area within range of potential long term landscape effects of national significance. 8.3 Secondly due to its close proximity to a concentration of important coastal recreation routes and relative alignment such that views would frequently be channelled towards the proposal visitors would be vulnerable to prolonged effects from both Hellrigg individually or cumulatively (in combination or sequentially) with other wind energy schemes and the existing manmade verticals of the Anthorn masts. The AONB and the recreation routes lie to the SE and NW of the proposal where effects would be exacerbated by exposure to the longest period of moving blades in full plane due to the prevailing south-westerly wind direction. 8.4 Thirdly its location on a narrow coastal plain fragmented by rolling farmland and within a tight sequence of contrasting landscapes has made it difficult to achieve a development that appears logical and clearly related to a consistent set of key characteristics. For example the wind farm would have a mixed relationship with the horizon sometimes appearing in sharp contrast to the coastal plain and elsewhere appearing in an unpredictable way against undulations and ridgelines creating disconcerting partial views. Also in terms of scale and openness, from large scale coastal margins with broad views that would not be intimidated to smaller scale areas inland enclosed by ridges where the turbines are likely to feel over dominant. 8.5 Fourthly the location of the wind farm adjacent or close to local roads and the B5302 would tend to raise its landscape and visual profile. The position of the turbine group set back from a public highway of suitable width for access and layout bridging the U2042 increases the internal access track requirement by 0.7km and number of openings off public highways to five. These openings would again increase visibility of both the site infrastructure and turbines. 8.6 The wind farm composition has fundamental weaknesses. In the majority of viewpoints the turbines do not read collectively as a single cohesive group and they also appear disconnected into either two groups of two or a central group of two with outlying single turbines either side. These effects are due to the wide separation distances between turbines required for rotor diameters of 82m and their grid arrangement. Under the terms of the application and description in the ES the blade to tower height proportions of the turbines could vary considerably from those illustrated, a much squatter turbine with reduced hub height and/or longer blade is a possibility. This together with the possibility of separate transformer kiosks