MABRAKE – Milton Abbot, BRadstone And KElly Action group.

True cost of Britain’s wind farm industry revealed – Telegraph.

What we have all known and finally put in print!

A more detailed report from This is Cornwall/Western Morning News which includes the New guidelines on wind farm developments.

Although not mentioned I would read this applies to Solar Farms as well?

Residents given power to use new law to halt wind turbines | This is Cornwall.

It is interesting to note that the same announcement can generate three widely different reports in newspapers.  This one is from the Times:-

I hope someone on the Planning Committee of WDBC reads our posts!

New powers for local communities to block unsightly turbines will be announced today in a move hailed by Conservatives as marking the end of onshore wind farms.

Ed Davey, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, will announce a fivefold increase in the financial inducements on offer to communities that do want to host a wind farm, which would be worth up to £400 off an average household’s annual energy bill.

But the scheme is accompanied by a planning shake-up that makes it easier for communities to reject such projects.

Under the new rules, developers would have to consult communities even before seeking planning permission. If locals objected, the process would come to a halt.

New planning guidance would also reverse the current balance of assumptions under which national policy trumps local concerns. In future the reverse would be the case.

The agreement allows Mr Davey and the Liberal Democrats to trumpet extra financial support for wind farms. But Tories believe the planning shake-up will render such support moot because communities will use the new powers to send developers packing.

The shift follows the arrival of Michael Fallon in the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and has the full support of David Cameron. The Prime Minister has been assailed by Tory MPs who complain that wind farms have been foisted on reluctant communities.

Three years after Mr Cameron promised to lead the “greenest government ever”, today’s move marks another retreat from the his early ambitons. Senior government sources said there had been too great an emphasis on the benefits of renewable energy over local environmental considerations.

Eric Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, will amend secondary legislation to make it compulsory for developers to hold “pre-application consultation” with communities. He will also issue revised technical planning guidance so the drive for renewable energy does not over-ride environmental protections.

A Tory source said: “The PM feels that it is very important that local people are taken into account when it comes to wind farms and that is why new legislation will be brought forward so that if people don’t want wind farms they will be able to stop them.”

The package will also include an agreement for a fivefold increase in the community benefits developers offer, regarded as “bribes” by sceptics. It would mean an increase from £1,000 per megawatt of capacity per year to £5,000 for the lifetime of the windfarm.

A community agreeing to a medium-sized wind farm could receive a package of benefits worth £100,000 a year.

BBC News – Local communities offered more say over wind farms.