For a brief moment there was unity across the political divide in the Powys council chamber as councillors voted unanimously to call on the Welsh Government to pause wind turbine applications in the county.

At a Powys County Council meeting on Thursday, October 9, a motion was brought in front of councillors to support the call asking the Welsh Government to pause applications until it has answered three important aspects for developing these energy projects.

These applications, which are considered as Developments of National Significance (DNS), are processed by Welsh Government Planning Inspectors at PEDW (Planning and Environment Decisions Wales) who advise a government minister on what decision to take.

The council is only a statutory consultee in this process and are able to provide a Local Impact Report (LIR) on a DNS application.

The motion was brought forward by cabinet member Cllr Glyn Preston (Liberal Democrat – Llanidloes) and was seconded by Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson (Conservative – Meifod and Llangyniew).

Cllr Preston said: “I’d like to thank Cllr Wilkinson who’s been willing to work with me on this motion.

“It’s great to be able to work cross-party on an issue of such importance to our county and I hope members from all parties, and none (Independents) will be able to join in supporting this today.”

He believed some “hard practical realities” need to be faced, one of which is that the national grid system to link up energy projects is “at capacity” in Powys.

Cllr Preston said: “Approving large-scale developments without a clear distribution network is simply unsustainable.

“Neither is it reasonable that newly built transmission lines simply export power out of our county without improving the local grid for our communities.’

He wanted to see a commitment being made to put transmission lines underground wherever possible “to protect our landscapes.”

Cllr Preston believed that the current “case by case” approach of planning applications by PEDW was not keeping up with the number of proposals.

Cllr Preston said: “Communities are being completely overwhelmed by multiple overlapping projects and uncertainty over their combined impact.

“It feels like there is a new application every week and the local people are beginning to lose faith in the impartiality of the PEDW planning system.

“I want Powys to remain a leader in renewable energy but that also means speaking up when the system is not working as it should.”

Plaid Cymru group leader Cllr Elwyn Vaughan (Glantwymyn) said that he backed the motion and if he, as a member of the Planning committee who takes an interest in planning, felt a little bit “lost” then he couldn’t “imagine” how the public felt.

Cllr Vaughan said: “It’s not just the Welsh Government we need to press, but also Westminster.”

This is because applications for grid transmission are decided at a UK Government level.

Cllr Jeremy Brignell-Thorp (Green Party – Montgomery and Forden) agreed with the motion but didn’t want it to be seen “as a vote against wind turbines.”

Cllr Brignell-Thorp said: “I do agree there’s a lack of a coherent publicly acceptable strategy for building more wind generation and the Welsh Government does need to address this.”

Cllr Wilkinson came in at the end of the debate to sum up the motion and said: “I became increasingly alarmed at the size and scale and the feeding frenzy of these development applications and the impacts they would have on the landscape of our precious county.

“We are only a consultee – but we are able send a clear message to the Welsh Government that the scale of what’s been proposed here in Powys needs to be looked at again.”

Council went to a vote which saw all 51 councillors at the meeting vote in favour of the motion.