Pickles to consider for recovery appeals for renewable energy developments

The Communities Secretary is to revise the appeals recovery criteria and consider for recovery appeals for renewable energy developments.

The move comes after the Department for Communities and Local Government this summer published new planning practice guidance on the weight to be given to concerns raised by local communities in planning decisions on onshore renewable energy.

In a written ministerial statement, Eric Pickles said: “The National Planning Policy Framework includes strong protections for the natural and historic environment. Yet, some local communities have genuine concerns that when it comes to developments such as wind turbines and solar farms insufficient weight is being given to local environmental considerations like landscape, heritage and local amenity.”

The Communities Secretary said the new guidance made it clear that the need for renewable energy did not automatically override environmental protections and the views of local communities should be listened to.

He added that the new planning practice guidance had been published to assist local councils and planning inspectors in their consideration of local plans and individual planning applications.

“Of course, planning is a quasi-judicial process, and every application needs to be considered on its individual merits, with due process, in light of the relevant material considerations,” Pickles said.

He added: “I want to give particular scrutiny to planning appeals involving renewable energy developments so that I can consider the extent to which the new practice guidance is meeting the Government’s intentions. To this end, I am hereby revising the appeals recovery criteria and will consider for recovery appeals for renewable energy developments.”

This new criterion has been added to the recovery policy issued on 30 June 2008 and will be applied for a period of six months after which it will be reviewed.

The Communities Secretary said: “For the avoidance of doubt, this does not mean that all renewable energy appeals will be recovered, but that Planning Ministers are likely to recover a number of appeals in order to assess the application of the planning practice guidance at national level.”

A ‘recovered’ appeal is one where instead of an inspector making the decision, he or she will write a report that makes a recommendation on how the appeal should be determined. The Secretary of State will then make the decision, taking into account the inspector’s recommendation.