FEATURE SPONSOR
PLANNING ISSUES
NEED FOR ENERGY GENERATION On a more positive note, the need for additional energy generation capacity in the UK has not gone away. The planning system will have to facilitate additional electricity generating capacity at some point soon if energy security is to be maintained and the lights in all these newly consented houses are not to go out.
The Conservative Party agenda is clear in promoting the fracturing of shale gas reserves (or ‘fracking’) with its consequential negative impact on carbon emissions. The green credentials of the Coalition government are in danger of being tarnished by shades of brown. Fracking remains a largely untried process in the UK which has already engendered considerable public concern.
The debate on securing an appropriate mix of energy generation still has some way to run and the politicisation of the Energy Bill increasingly means that this is already an electoral issue of increasing importance.
TOWARDS A POSATIVE APPROACH The current National planning Policy Framework (NPPF) does encourage all communities to have a positive strategy to promote energy from renewable and low carbon sources. It may be that such a plan-led approach, if enforced by the Minister, will require all Local Planning Authorities to properly plan for renewable energy before a Local Plan could be declared sound (in the same way that authorities must with housing policies by analysing and forecasting demand and then fully meeting these objectively assessed needs).
CONSIDERED APPROACH This would yield a properly considered approach to the delivery of more renewable energy generation at the local level and provide a more stable platform against which renewable planning applications will need to be determined.
If ultimately properly enforced by appeal, in the same way that 5 year housing land yardstick has been by the Minister in respect of housing, then we may begin to see the necessary exponential ‘step changes’ in renewable energy delivery to meet the challenging 2020 targets and beyond, in respect of adhering to future carbon budgets.
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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