Madam,

There will be those who take great satisfaction from the refusal by the Planning Inspectorate to allow Antur Aelhaearn to develop a community turbine at Llanaelhaearn.

Could I ask that they reflect what their objections and the refusal means in reality:* The loss of £2.5m to Llanaelhaearn which languishes in the poorest quarter in Wales* The inability to create 26 jobs over the 20-year lifecycle of the turbine* The proposed fund that Antur intended to alleviate fuel poverty in the village will no longer be possible* A village nursery will not have the necessary funding* Proposals to re-open the village shop will have to be abandoned* An annual grant to the community council will have to be forsaken* Maintenance of the village’s playing field and community hall will suffer.

The preparation took 4.5 years and hundreds of voluntary man-hours at a total cost of £85k for the myriad of assessments that were required. Financial support came from Welsh Government (Ynni`r Fro) and Cyngor Gwynedd (Gwynedd Werdd), seemingly to no purpose. It will be a very Pyrrhic victory indeed for those who argue the case for protecting the physical environment whilst allowing the social, cultural and human environment to wither on the vine with its consequential impact on health and morale.The time has come for Welsh Government to urgently review the serious mismatch between Government’s stated policy of sustainable community development as espoused in the Well Being and Future Generations Act passed earlier this year and the reality as witnessed in the case of refusal for this solitary turbine. The question must be asked is the Planning Inspectorate fit for purpose and does Cyngor Gwynedd fully understand the implications of its interpretation of planning law?

Yours etc,Dr Carl Iwan Clowes,Chair, Ynni Aelhaearn,Rhoscefnhir