Inequalities in the planning system between proposers and objectors

It seems perverse that the applicants can appeal if permission is refused and that objectors cannot except on a point of law to the High Court.

In the event of a public enquiry, a community has to find enormous amounts of money to be represented: the result has no relevance in local or national memory. The Helmsdale Public Inquiry is a typical example, this Inquiry is not even a side note to current planning policy even though the combined cost of conducting it would have amounted to in excess of £500,000.

In a book ‘Mega-projects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition’ published in 2003, the Danish Economist Professor Bent Flyvjerg examined hundreds of multibillion-dollar mega-projects across five continents. Promoters of mega-projects, Flyvberg and his co-authors write, characteristically “misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built” with “the formula for approval an unhealthy cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, under valued environmental impacts and over valued economic development effects”.

Planning Policy Statement 22 - Renewable Energy : Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2004)

Regional planning bodies and local planning authorities should not make assumptions about the technical and commercial feasibility of renewable energy projects (e.g. identifying generalised locations for development based on mean wind speeds). Technological change can mean that sites currently excluded as locations for particular types of renewable energy development may in future be suitable.

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Planning for Renewable Energy - A Companion Guide to PPS22 : Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2004)

Any policy should begin with a statement of general support for renewables. It is usual to then list the issues that will be taken into account in considering specific applications: -

• there will be reference to impact on landscape, townscape, natural, historical and cultural features and areas. These aspects can often be assessed by reference to the landscape character and sensitivity assessment already established at regional or subregional level – and are, therefore, unlikely to be burdensome to developer or local authority;
  
• there will be specific reference to the impacts on the amenity of the area (or particular sub-areas within it) in relation to visual intrusion, noise, dust, odour and traffic generation. Here authorities will need to consider use of zones of visual influence, cumulative effect and separation distance (for noise – see the Technical Annex on wind for further details). The impacts, as above, will differ with the technology, the scale of the proposal and the sensitivity of the local area (for instance, proximity to housing).

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Local Plan

Renewable energy

4.13

Renewable energy is defined in PPG22 as “those energy flows that occur naturally and repeatedly in the environment – energy from the sun, the wind, and the oceans an d the fall of water”. The renewable energy study for the Eastern Region indicates that in the case of Bedford Borough, the most likely sources of renewable energy are biofuels and the use of small scale solar panels. The Government’s policy as set out in “New and Renewable Energy: Future Prospects in the United Kingdom”, Energy Paper 62, March 1994 aims to stimulate the development of new and renewable energy sources wherever they have prospects of being economically attractive and environmentally acceptable in order to contribute to (a) diverse, secure and sustainable energy supplies; (b) a reduction in the emission of pollutants; (c) encouragement of internationally competitive industries.

4.14

The Borough Council acknowledges new and renewable energy sources potentially contribute to energy needs in a significant and sustainable way and can offer the hope of increasing diversity as well as reducing harmful emissions to the environment. The Borough Council’s policies towards developing renewable energy sources must be weighed carefully with the continuing commitment to policies for protecting the local environment, and it is recognised that proposals to harness renewable energy can display variety of factors peculiar to the technology involved. Furthermore, such schemes can have particular locational constraints since, in many cases, the resource can only be harnessed where it occurs. The Borough council will need to consider both the immediate and wider impact of such projects on the environment and their wider contribution to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Policy BE6

In view of the general environmental benefits associated with harnessing energy sources, the Borough Council will support the development of renewable energy schemes provided that it can be shown that such developments would not harm interests of acknowledged importance in the local environment.

Policy BE7

In assessing proposals for renewable energy schemes the Borough Council will have particular regard to the following issues: -

(i) the immediate and wider impact of the proposed development and the landscape

(ii) the need to protect features of areas of natural, cultural, historical, and archaeological interest;

(iii) the measures that would be taken both during and after construction, to minimise the impact of the development on the landscape, local land use, and residential amenity;

(iv) the local and wider benefits that the proposal might bring;

(v) certain renewable resources can only be harnessed where the resource occurs;

(vi) any requirement for the restoration of the site.

Energy Efficient Layouts

4.15

In addition to reducing energy consumption through the disposition of land uses, the Borough Council has a role in ensuring the layout of new building fully addresses the need to conserve energy. The energy efficiency of individual buildings is dealt with by the building regulations and this is not dealt with in this plan. However the Borough Council will, wherever possible, encourage the use of energy efficient design solutions. In the case of energy efficient layouts, several key factors need to be taken into account. The principal considerations are orientation, overshadowing, wind protection and the nature of the built form itself. It is the Borough Council’s intention to provide supplementary planning guidance on this.

Policy BE8

In considering proposals for major new development, the Borough Council will seek to achieve energy efficient layouts, which, wherever possible, maximise the potential for the use of passive solar energy.