Tynedale District Council (05C16971)

Planning applications                 Further report

1 May 2008

Tynedale District Council took no action to remedy injustice caused by its failure to follow its own policy. The Ombudsman had found in her first report (issued 21 March 2007), that the failure led to the existence of a long overhead power line with 12 electricity poles across an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Council has not agreed to her recommendations to remedy this injustice, so the Ombudsman has issued a second (further) report repeating her recommendations, that the Council should negotiate with the developer and the power supply company to remove the overhead power supply and install a wind turbine at the Council’s expense or, if this proved unsuccessful, negotiate with both parties to ensure that the power supply is placed underground – again at the Council’s expense.

A couple complained about the way the Council considered a planning application to change the use of an agricultural building to a home. The application included the erection of a nine-metre high domestic wind turbine to avoid the need to mount 1,600 metres of power line on poles, which would reduce the amenity of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and present a danger to wildlife.

The Council has a policy to ensure that overhead power lines are not installed across Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has therefore imposed conditions on other planning permissions requiring power lines to be placed underground.

In approving this application, however, the Council did not impose such a condition. As a result, the developer chose not to install a wind turbine, and instead installed power lines on poles. The Ombudsman found that the Council should have included a condition preventing the developer from following this course of action in the event that he chose not to erect a wind turbine.

Date Published: 14/10/08