MENUWell, this is the proposal in as much detail as RES have made public!
Their website on their proposals can be found here, Look at the June 2023 exhibition for brief details of the latest information.
Please read carefully!
Summary
13 turbines each 150m high (more accurately 149.9m high) each 4.2MW producing up to 54.6MW
Each turbine is twice as high as Cwmbran’s very own 22 storey block of flats and bigger than any turbine in England except for a single one community owned turbine on an industrial estate in Avonmouth. The specification given by RES is such that they may well be proposing the very same turbines.
Each of the 13 turbines will be as high as the single one highest turbine in England.
Other comparisons include that the turbines heights are very close to the height of Blackpool tower.
The nearest community to the development is Pantygasseg elevation 329m, 1.038km from the nearest turbine. A photomontage from here was presented at the exhibition in Cwmbran.
The next nearest community in Cwmbran is The Square, Upper Cwmbran elevation 223m, 19 residents, 10 houses. 1.36km from Turbine T9. RES had no photomontage from The Square and HAD NO INTENTION OF PREPARING ONE. They admitted this after lots of questioning at the exhibition and over a number of weeks after the exhibition.
Only after a lot of nagging, cajoling and persuasion have RES eventually agreed to prepare and add a photomontage from the Square to their submission to PEDW.
After the original online consultation in March 2022 The Project Manager for RES admitted that they were totally unaware of the existence of The Square, Upper Cwmbran, let alone it’s proximity to the proposed wind farm. In the June 2023 exhibitions they had obviously chosen to ignore it’s existence, having trimmed their maps to exclude and having faded out surrounding dwellings.
There are also two farms just over 1km from their nearest turbines, and two cottages in Upper Cwmbran just 1km from Turbine T9
Blaen Bran Community Woodland is less than 500m from the nearest turbine and the management of this woodland have not been consulted. When queried this I was told “They won’t be seen through the trees”. Wrong!
UPDATE (following publication of draft DNS documents) RES as promised have produced a photomontage from The Square. It shows Turbine T9 standing menacingly above the conservation area. They have provided this to selected residents but have stated that categorically it WILL NOT be included in the planning application! See this photomontage here.
The project will require the removal of various depths of peat over a many acres of the mountain top for the bases of the turbines and the working area around each (realistically about 1.8 acres for each turbine taking in total 23.4 acres). Where will this peat go except on top of the peat alongside? (smothering and disturbing another 23 acres?)
The project will require the building of about 8 km of roads which appear on the DNS application to be 5.5m wide, although road drawing strangely has no dimensions on it. “TRACK WIDTH TO INCREASE ON BENDS AND PASSING PLACES”, passing place might be very long to accommodate long loads. It looks that from their un-dimensioned drawing (here) the total width of peat disturbed by the road, cable tranches, drainage trenches and the sub-base will be up to 22m! These will require the removal of a vast areas of peat. Where will this peat go except on top of the peat alongside?
The proposal is to extract stone from three quarries on site, pleasantly named “borrow pits”. This will require the removal of a vast quantity of peat first. Where will this peat go except on top of the peat nearby?
to be continued
