Just over 12  months from Torridge District Councils decision to refuse a planning application for a single turbine on farmland Southwest of Bideford, North Devon, the Planning Inspectorate have allowed the appeal and granted planning consent for the turbine to go ahead.

Wilson Fearnall have been fundamental to the scheme throughout the planning process and are pleased that an objective view of the development has finally been established.  ‘Its very difficult for some people to remove the facts from their emotions when looking at this sort of application,’ comments Wilson Fearnall managing director, Richard Fearnall.  ‘From the outset, we were confident that this site ticked all of the boxes, but the local authority lacked cohesion in their reasoning and were over protective when assessing landscape impact,’ Richard continues.  This project is a good example of how a lack of experience at officer level can often lead to lengthy and costly delays on all parts.  Different scales of turbines are finally being ‘seen for what they are’ in terms of their landscape impact and projects refused along these line are worth the reevaluation of an expert to advise on the likelihood of appeal success or to consider the submission of a revised application.