A planning inspector has dismissed an appeal against a decision by Pembrokeshire County Council to refuse a planning application for a wind turbine near Wolfscastle.
The application proposed a 36.6m high wind turbine, with a tip height of 46.3m, sited on land associated with Windy Willows.
The planning application was refused permission by the County Council in December. An appeal was made by Mr Clark and a site visit was made in July.
The Inspector, Clive Nield, said the appellant had assessed the visual impact from a large number of viewpoints around the site but had not ‘adequately taken into account views from high ground to the south, for example the popular walking areas around Plumstone and Treffgarne’.
“Whilst the visual impact of a single moderately sized wind turbine may not in itself have an unacceptable effect on visual amenity, in this case there are already a number of similar wind turbines in the area, and the cumulative effects on some views would be significant,” he said.
“This would particularly be the case in views from Plumstone and Treffgarne, and the proposed new turbine would have the effect of filling gaps in the views to give the impression of a visual belt of wind turbines.
“This cumulative effect would cause substantial harm to the appearance of the landscape.”
He concluded that despite the proposed turbine’s benefits of renewable energy, which he said were ‘useful and not insignificant’ and in line Planning Policy he did not consider that they were sufficient to outweigh the substantial visual harm to the landscape.
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