UK Renewable Energy Strategy Consultation : The South Downs Society Response
The Society has responded to government’s recent consultation on a national strategy for renewable – green – energy.
We have welcomed the clear intention to tackle climate change and issues of energy security and we wholeheartedly support efforts from all sectors of the community to reduce energy use and increase efficiency and the contribution to energy generation from renewables.
The proposed tenfold increase (2006 to 2020) in the UK’s contribution to EU renewable targets will be extremely challenging and a raft of measures, current and proposed, will be required, particularly in wind energy – both onshore and offshore – and biomass. But it will be essential to retain balance between economic, social and environmental considerations and the stated intention to develop planning guidance at national, regional and local level is welcomed.
The South Downs in Sussex and Hampshire are currently protected as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and have been designated a National Park (awaiting confirmation) : these are the highest levels of landscape protection afforded by the planning system and need to retain that special protection. However, in the recent case of the Glyndebourne wind turbine we have seen a planning decision which can only be described as perverse in its cavalier approach to this special status. This Society will wish to see full weight being afforded, in the drawing up of planning guidance, to the protection of our most treasured landscapes.
Whatever the overall “green” imperative of developing the renewables sector, the actual energy benefits need to be weighed carefully and transparently against other environmental factors.
At a local level planning decisions must be informed by a detailed landscape character assessment and, in particular, an assessment of the area’s capacity to accommodate renewable energy schemes.
These comments apply not only to proposals for wind turbines and wind farms, but also to other green technologies such as wave and tidal power and biomass.
The consultation rightly places emphasis on the need for local communities to “own” the benefits of renewables as counterweight to any perceived downside such as damage to the local landscape and recreation experience, or noise. But the public can only “buy into” energy conservation, renewables and their various implications if they are provided with adequate information on outputs and efficiency. Information needs to be open and transparent.
This is an abridged version of the Society’s response to the consultation : a full version of the response can be supplied on request to the Society office.
