TONY FYSON, chairman of Dartmouth and Kingswear society, writes:

The committee of the Dartmouth and Kingswear society has followed the issue of wind and solar power development proposals in the South Hams with mounting concern. We deplore the policy vacuum in which authorities are expected to make decisions about these matters.

The Government has recently issued guidance which deliberately omits to set specific standards which need to be met by the large scale wind and solar proposals that are now coming forward. It apparently prefers, in the name of 'localism', that immediately affected communities, however small, should have a determining say arising as much from anticipated personal circumstances as from wider environmental and social concerns.

The D&K believes this 'hands-off' approach will have seriously damaging consequences. First it encourages the assumption that protest groups can stop any such development anywhere – an attitude being adopted presently by some anti-wind turbine organisations close to Dartmouth. But paradoxically it also allows for financial pressure to be brought to bear on landowners and affected individuals by payments from the commercial concerns involved. This open and legal 'buying' of acquiescent support is a new and damaging characteristic of environmental planning. A payment does not make a bad planning decision into a good one.

Many energy planning applications are likely to go to appeal if they are refused in the first instance. Again there is no clarity about the standards that the planning inspectorate is likely to apply in considering individual cases. If planning inspectors are to be the final arbiters in most instances it is urgently necessary that they publish the policies and standards that they propose to adopt.

The D&K recognises the world-wide consensus that climate change is a growing threat to which humans make a significant contribution.

Consequently, it accepts that power sources which reduce the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere are urgently needed and that no part of the country enjoys an automatic right to exemption from the obligation to contribute to national renewable energy targets.

We are aware that to develop wind and solar generation in the country at large, windy and sunny areas will need to be used for turbines and solar panels and that to put all such development offshore would be prohibitively expensive, as well as a threat to shipping interests. Proven onshore wind and sun technology, widely used in many parts of the world, cannot sensibly be set aside on the grounds that new technologies are in prospect, but they do have the advantage of being relatively easy to remove when they become obsolete.

The D&K has already urged South Hams Council to propose standards and to consult the public on them. These are especially important in the case of wind turbine noise, distance from habitation, visual effects and impacts on countryside and the built heritage. We believe that in this connection the study undertaken for the Devon Landscape Policy Group and published by the county as advice note 2 accommodating wind and solar PV in Devon's landscape points the way forward.

As this document demonstrates, mapping the county according to degrees of landscape sensitivity to interference with features such as landform, human-scale elements, tracks, skylines, tranquillity, scenic qualities etc. could provide the basis for identifying suitable and unsuitable areas for wind and solar developments.

We do not take the view that all wind and solar developments should be resisted on principle wherever they are proposed. We accept that the countryside will change, as it frequently has in the past. But we believe that Government at local and national levels must take the lead in identifying and enforcing standards regarding both social impacts and environmental quality – as it always has in administering other aspects of the planning system.

To do otherwise is to create a damaging free-for-all that in the long run can only cause unnecessary harm to our precious surroundings.