黑洞社区

It will be tougher for developers to get planning permission to build wind farms and large-scale solar developments under new planning guidance issued this week.

The Department for Communities and Local Government unveiled changes to , which say local authority planners must now give greater weight to considerations such as the landscape and heritage of the local area when making decision about large-scale renewable energy projects, such as wind farms or solar developments.

There have been long-standing concerns that consideration of these issues has been overridden by a national drive towards low-carbon energy.

In a statement in the House of Lords, Baroness Hanham said: 鈥淢eeting our energy goals should not be used to justify the wrong development in the wrong location.鈥�

She said the guidance 鈥渕ade it plain鈥� that the views of local people should be 鈥渓istened to鈥� by planners.

However, the guidance stopped short of giving local communities the ability to veto wind farms or other renewable energy projects, which previous press reports had suggested they would.

The department also introduced similar requirements for waste management developments.

Hanham said the requirements would strengthen the protections for green belt land by ensuring that wider environmental economic benefits do not trump local concerns.

Paul Barwell, chief executive of the Solar Trade Association, said it was 鈥渨orrying鈥� that the solar industry had not been consulted on the changes.

He said the department was 鈥渄ownplaying鈥� the threat of climate change. 鈥淭he negative rhetoric of today鈥檚 ministerial statements ignores the benefits of renewables, and presents these measures as simply a means of restricting their growth,鈥� he said.

鈥淥nly ten days earlier the same department presented guidance for oil and gas exploration as measures to 鈥榟elp support the shale gas industry鈥�.鈥�