Planning Updates

Appeal submitted to Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government - 26 March 2012

Unfortunately councillors on the planning committee of Stroud District Council chose to reject the advice of their professional planning officers and refused our planning application in April 2011.

Having reviewed the reason for refusal which relates solely to the potential impact on views into and out of the AONB we chose to submit an appeal to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

The outcome of that appeal will be decided by an Inspector who was hearing the evidence over two sessions held in January and March 2012, until the Government announced that changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) would be revealed during the Inspectors second session. A third session will now be required, with a date to be announced.

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Wind farm application turned down - 13 April 2011

Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, said:

“We’re disappointed of course, it’s a decision that doesn't make any sense to us. We Britons needs to harness our indigenous clean energy sources, like the wind.  We don’t have the luxury of turning down projects like this just because a tiny minority of people don’t like the look of them.
 
“It's future generations that will pay for the weakness our councillors have shown today. Now we have to appeal and waste time and money (ours and the Council's) getting the right decision - the one the Council planning department actually recommended.”

Today ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has ruled that a leaflet from anti-group Save Berkeley Vale included an image of the wind park that was "exaggerated" and "misleading", one which was also displayed twice at council meetings.
 
Full details can be found on the ASA website.

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Further time needed to consider the application - 10 February 2011

Our planning application for four turbines on the Berkeley Vale site was presented to the planning committee of Stroud District Council on Tuesday 8 February.  Officers had been provided with further information to clarify some issues for them and they asked the members of the committee for further time to consider this.

Members agreed to this request and it is likely that the application will be presented to committee again in March.

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Application under review - 19 January 2011

Our application is currently being reviewed by Stroud District Council, and we hope that it will go to committee in early February.
 
While it is being considered, we wanted to establish local people’s views on our Berkeley Vale proposals - and on wind energy in general - once-and-for-all. So we asked NOP, one of the world’s most respected polling companies, to carry out an anonymous survey of 500 people living within 10km (6 miles) of the Berkeley Vale site on our behalf. All the questions were vetted and approved by NOP beforehand.
 
The results were overwhelmingly positive, with two-thirds (66%) of people supporting the plans and only 12% against. Two-thirds (66%) said they’d be happy to live within 3 miles of a windmill, and three-quarters are in favour of making more energy from wind here in the UK. 42% of local people said wind turbines were attractive (while 22% neither agreed nor disagreed). You can read more results here.
 
We think this survey shows the vast majority of Stroud people are keen on the idea of wind energy, they want to see more windmills in the UK – and specifically at this site in Berkeley Vale. It’s the same story we see consistently in our work in other parts of the country. 
 
We now have our fingers crossed that the planning committee reflects the views of the local people that elected them.

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How to comment on Berkeley Vale - 01 September 2010

Local people who would like to comment can view the planning application on the Stroud District Council's Planning website, where you can also leave comments in support of the application:

Or you can write to Stroud District Council, quoting application number S.10/1638/FUL, and send it to;

Stroud District Council
Ebley Mill
Stroud
Gloucestershire
GL5 4UB

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Planning application submitted - 25 August 2010

We have now submitted our planning application for four modern windmills in Berkeley Vale to Stroud District Council. The detailed planning application contains a range of technical photomontages that accurately represent how the turbines would look, together with a comprehensive environmental assessment section. It includes the results of background noise monitoring at various locations in the local area and months of wildlife research for the site, as well as a host of other detailed studies.

 Stroud District Council’s Planning Department now has 16 weeks to formally consider the application and make a decision. The application can be viewed by members of the public at the council’s offices at Ebley Mill.

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Public exhibition for the new wind park plan - 14 May 2010

Last year, we informed Stroud District Council and members of the public that we had identified a suitable site for a wind park between the M5 motorway and the A38 in the parish of Stinchcombe. The site was identified as being able to potentially accommodate up to eight modern windmills.

Since then, as part of our application process we have undertaken a number of months of detailed environmental studies including ecological surveys, assessments of landscape and cultural heritage features, as well as consultation with the local community. These assessments and consultations have been fed into the final design of the wind park and, as a result, we will shortly be submitting our planning application to a wind park of build four windmills at Berkeley Vale. The wind park will generate 23 million units of clean green electricity every year, enough for the equivalent of over 7,100 homes.

To keep local people fully up-to-date with the latest proposals, we will be holding a public exhibition on Thursday 20th May between 12 noon and 7pm at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Berkeley Road, GL13 9HD, before the application is submitted to Stroud District Council.

Photomontages and other information for the proposed wind park will be on display, and members of the Ecotricity team will be on-hand to discuss the proposal with you and provide the facts on wind energy.

If you can’t make it to the exhibition, an unmanned display will then be at Dursley Library between Tuesday 1 June to Monday 14 June. You can also contact with us directly with any queries at berkeley-vale@ecotricity.co.uk.

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Appeal granted for monitoring mast - 26 March 2010

The Planning Inspector granted permission for the temporary wind monitoring mast on 12th January and was erected a couple of weeks later - feel free to pop along and take a look. You can see the Inspector’s decision here. Our thanks to all those who wrote in support of the planning application and appeal.

Our environmental assessment work is ongoing and we’ll soon be in a position to submit a planning application for the wind park to Stroud District Council. Thanks again to everyone who’s called and written in to show their support so far.

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Mast application rejected - 12 November 2009

Our application for a temporary wind monitoring mast was rejected by Stroud District Planning Committee on the grounds that it would be detrimental to the setting of the Cotswolds AONB. We're disappointed with the decision of course, and it was against the advice of Stroud District Council’s own Planning Officers. The visual impact on the Cotswolds AONB appears to be an odd reason to refuse a temporary structure less than 9 inches wide, outside of the AONB.

Worse still, on the same day the same committee approved our application for a bigger mast actually in the AONB - where the purpose was not for the future building of windmills, yet they turn down our application for a smaller mast outside of the AONB - on visual impact grounds - on a site where we say we do want to build windmills. We’re sure that is something the committee will struggle to explain following the current planning appeal.

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A new Wind Park for Stroud District. - 06 July 2009

We are about to kick off the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process.

The Stroud District Council will shortly receive our request for a scoping opinion which will outline the proposal we’d like to progress. Stroud Council will then respond detailing what they’d like us to study and report on as part of our planning application.

This first stage will also draw on the views of statutory consultees, bodies such as Natural England and the Ministry of Defence.