Medium-wind Turbine Planning Services

Once the feasibility study has been completed and the project is moving ahead, the first stages of the wind planning application are the ‘screening opinion’ with the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and the consultation process.

A screening opinion request will be sent to the LPA to establish if the proposed development requires a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).  For a sub-5 MW or single wind turbine projects this is not usually required, unless the site is in an unusually ecologically sensitive area.

Even if a full EIA is not required, almost all sites require some form of environmental report which is supported by specialist ecological, landscape and technical reports. We engage positively with the LPA to ensure that these reports are proportionate to the scale of the development and appropriately scoped to meet the LPA’s requirements without entailing excessive cost.

The consultation process which runs in parallel must be transparent, comprehensive and well prepared with a wide range of both statutory and non-statutory consultees, as well as discussions with relevant stakeholders in order to identify site specific issues. The consultation process will be reviewed continuously in order to highlight potential pitfalls early on and work towards possible mitigation. The following statutory consultees would be contacted as part of the process: Ofcom, MOD, Natural England, English Heritage, RSPB.

It is important to speak to people neighbouring potential sites as well as the local community. We will write to the local parish council as well as local residents to inform them of the details of the project.

In addition, if your site requires a wind monitoring mast this would be the best time to apply for planning consent to erect it to make sure you can get consent, the mast installed and collect some useful wind data while the main planning application progresses.

n order to submit a good quality and robust planning application environmental surveys, landscape assessments and often a noise survey will have to be made. Even the most straightforward projects will need at least an ecological and basic bird and bat survey.

Sites that cannot meet the ‘simplified’ ETSU noise modelling requirements will also need a background noise survey, which measures background noise models at the closest neighbouring properties.  The data recorded feeds into the noise modelling for the site and allows accurate noise levels at all points to be calculated.

These surveys will help influence the site design and identify the presence of any protected species that may be affected by the proposed turbine. In addition to this a landscape assessment will need to be made with a methodology agreed with the Local Planning Authority. The landscape assessment will require photomontages to be created to show accurately what the turbines will look like within the landscape as well as examining zones of theoretical vision that would show where the turbine could be seen from. Further assessments could also consider cultural heritage issues, noise, hydrology and access, which together would form the environmental report.

Once all the supporting data and information has been collected the environmental report and planning application will be written and put into a format acceptable to the Local Planning Authority (LPA). The planning application will then be submitted for the LPA to assess.

The normal process for a planning application is for the LPA to re-consult all of the statutory consultees and provide the general public access to the planning application documents for comment. The decision for most single wind turbine planning applications will be made at a Planning Committee where the planning officer handling the application will provide a report on the application and a recommendation to either approve or refuse planning consent. It would always be our aim to submit a high quality and effective application and achieve a recommendation for approval from the planning officer.

If consent is granted we would work towards satisfying any planning conditions applied to the consent and discharging them.

If the application is refused we would take it to appeal. This is where investing in good quality, well scoped and accurate supporting information really pays dividends, because it will stand up to scrutiny. At a planning appeal the local politics that so often affect planning committee decisions are removed, so (in theory at least) the final decision should be based on the facts presented.