Welsh Ministers successfully defend refusal of planning permission for wind turbines near national park

HHJ Jarman KC said in his judgment that RWE Renewables UK Swindon sought an order under section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, quashing a planning inspector’s decision to reject its application for up to six wind turbines immediately adjacent to the southern boundary of Bannau Breicheiniog National Park

The company claimed the inspector made seven errors of law but Welsh Ministers submitted that when read fairly as a whole, the decision letter displayed no errors of law.

RWE’s application for a 460 hectares site constituted development of national importance and so the application was made under section 62D of the 1990 Act, as amended by the Planning (Wales) Act 2015.

It cited seven alleged errors by the inspector that included failing to assess whether the proposal was in accordance with the development plan as a whole, failing to consider whether there was a wholly exceptional case and acting irrationally in finding that benefits of proposed development could not be realised because planning permission was being withheld on landscape grounds.

HJH Jarman dismissed all seven grounds and said: “In my judgment they display the sort of excessive legalism against which the courts have repeatedly warned.

“Standing back, with an appropriate degree of benevolence, it is clear why the inspector refused planning permission notwithstanding the policy support for such development.”

He said the development plan permitted RWE’s project but only if it did not have an unacceptable adverse impact on the National Park.

“The inspector used his planning judgment to find the harm to the National Park to be a compelling consideration which outweighs the benefits,” the judge said.

“Reading the decision letter fairly as a whole, he set out what those benefits were. Accordingly, none of the grounds is made out and the challenge fails. The decision of the inspector stands.”

Mark Smulian