Mid-Wales Connection Project

Wednesday 12th February 2014 Westminster Hall

16:30

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

I look forward to speaking once more under your always sympathetic chairmanship, Mrs Riordan.

I will make a few initial comments about how I want to approach today’s debate. I could have tackled this issue, the effective industrialisation of the uplands of central Wales, from several different directions, but I want to focus completely on the direct implications of the mid-Wales connection project—the 400 kV line that will run from north Shropshire to the middle of my constituency. I assure the Minister that I have no intention of making any reference to the public inquiry currently taking place at the Royal Oak hotel, Welshpool, into the six proposals that have been refused and are to go to appeal. I know that he would not be able to comment on that, and I intend to refer to it only tangentially.

Normally when my thoughts turn to the appalling consequences of this project for the people of mid-Wales, I find it difficult not to become over-emotional—I become pretty angry and tend to lose my grip completely. That is fine when I am speaking to 2,000 people in Welshpool livestock market who all share my view and are protesting, or to the 1,800 people who have come with me on a three-and-a-half-hour bus journey to Cardiff to make their views known outside the National Assembly. Today I want to be calm, cool and rational, and to speak with understanding for the position of the Minister, who of course has to make his response in the context of Government policy.

[Mr Mark Williams (Ceredigion) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. Before he leaves his point about the passion with which he has directed this campaign—or crusade, as I guess he might regard it—I remind him that the concerns that he has voiced are felt very much to the immediate east of his constituency, across the border in England, but also to the west in Ceredigion. Mercifully, we have seen a project abandoned, temporarily at least, in Nant-y-Moch, but does he agree that the natural environment that he is keen to defend and protect is under threat in my constituency as well?

[Glyn Davies]

Indeed I do. I am glad that my hon. Friend intervened, in part because he is a Liberal Democrat, which shows that the feeling in mid-Wales is cross-party. If my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnorshire (Roger Williams), another Liberal Member, were here, he would take exactly the same view. The people of mid-Wales as a whole, along with all their representatives, share the view that I intend to express today.

[Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Glyn Davies]

It is the same in Shropshire as well.

[Daniel Kawczynski]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for including Shropshire in the title that he gave to the debate. We had to fight tooth and nail to prevent the power lines coming through my constituency—they will now, as he knows, be going through north Shropshire—and for a long time, there was tremendous anger and fear among residents in the western part of my constituency: the proposed lines might have been coming through the area where their homes are and they feared the impact of that. I completely concur with him on the devastation and misery that the project has caused.

[Glyn Davies]

I thank my hon. Friend for those remarks. There is quite a large part of the country in which the feeling is comprehensively the same.

I have two overall objectives today. I want to lay out the full appalling reality of what the mid-Wales connection project means for mid-Wales and Shropshire. Many people do not understand what the project is. Clearly, there is the 400 kV line, about 50 km long, from north Shropshire to the middle of my constituency, travelling up the beautiful, narrow Vrynwy valley. But because that line is dedicated to onshore wind farms, it is more than reasonable to conclude—in fact, it is blatantly obvious to anyone—that that will mean that there will be about 500 extra turbines in mid-Wales on top of what we have already; there are about 240 wind turbines now. On top of that, there will be about 100 miles of 132 kV cable criss-crossing Montgomeryshire all over the place, from the wind farms themselves to the 20-acre hub station in the middle of the county.

By any description imaginable, that is the industrialisation of the central uplands of mid-Wales and the Cambrian mountains. To many of us, it is an absolute abomination; I cannot believe that anybody with any sanity or appreciation—I am sorry, I am starting to go off on my usual rant. I will draw myself back.

[Jonathan Lord (Woking) (Con)]

I have come here to support my colleagues from Shropshire and Wales, a part of the country I happen to know extremely well. Does my hon. Friend agree that the cables are going to go through some of the most beautiful countryside in our two countries?

[Glyn Davies]

I could not agree more. That was the inspiration for my taking an interest in the issue, as I have since 2005. I will come back to why that date specifically is important.

My second objective today is to ask the Minister to agree publicly that enough is enough and that it is time for a moratorium on onshore wind farms. Much as I would like him to, I do not expect him to be able jump up and say, “Yes, I absolutely agree—as from today, there will be no more.” But it is important to put on the record that a huge and increasing number of people think that there is a strong case for that.

I want to put the case that I myself feel there is for a moratorium. I have never been convinced that onshore wind power was the right way to go to solve the UK’s energy demands, but I have always accepted that it had a part to play in the mix, which is what Government policy usually says. The mid-Wales connection project became an obvious likelihood in 2005 when the Assembly adopted a policy the consequences of which very few people understood. I am deeply grateful to Peter Ogden, the director of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, who explained it to me in 2005. I became the president of that organisation three years before I came to this place because I so appreciated his understanding of what the impact of the policy would be. It was only then that I realised quite how bad the situation was.

It is not, then, that I have always been against onshore wind power in principle, but mid-Wales has 240 turbines already. Another 500 on top, with all the power lines as well, is simply beyond the scale of anything that is reasonable. I wanted to look at the Government’s policy, so I asked the Library about the issue. I know that the Government have an overall target of 15% of energy coming from renewable sources by 2020. I understand that there is no direct policy for targets within that on specific types of renewable energy, but the Government have expectations and aspirations, or whatever word we want to use, and the sort of total that is being looked at is 10 GW to 15 GW for wind power—that is the figure the Library told me in November. Now, 7 GW have already been installed, a further 6.63 GW are through the planning process and another 6.33 GW are already in planning. We have already reached anything that could reasonably be described as the Government’s expectation. There is no case for taking it any further.

If we look at Governments in Europe—Germany, Spain and the European Union itself—they are identifying that the cost of the subsidies is unsustainable. Indeed, those countries are all looking to cut back. We might find that we are committing ourselves in the United Kingdom to a massively expensive project in mid-Wales, but in 10 years time the policy behind it will have been abandoned, and we will have stranded assets. The cost of the project is huge: 10% of the capital investment will be added on to the cost of everybody’s electricity for the next 30 years. That is the scale of what happens with such a hugely expensive project. The only reason National Grid is going forward with it is because it has a statutory obligation to do so. It makes no sense at all.

[Daniel Kawczynski]

Does my hon. Friend agree that one crazy aspect of the matter is how far the site is from the national grid, and that the Government must provide some advice and management about where the pylons will be sited so that the countryside is not plastered over to connect places to the national grid?

[Glyn Davies]

My hon. Friend will not be surprised to know that I agree with that point.

I want to spend a little time on the impact on democracy in central Wales and perhaps wider. Democracy is the principle on which the Government and the House of Commons operate, and people believe they can have some influence on policy through their elected Members of Parliament. That is particularly apt, because the Government are committed to the principle of localism and legislated for that in England, although there has been no such legislation in Wales. Localism is a key part of the Government’s policies.

I receive dozens of e-mails, and I have one here from someone who says that National Grid is now at their door with a legal right of access to conduct a walk-over service for the forthcoming pylon route corridor, and that they feel the rope tightening around their necks but powerless to fight against it. That is standard. A research paper from Aberystwyth university referred to the hopelessness and helplessness felt by the people of mid-Wales when they see what is happening. They do not want the pylons, but they believe that they can do nothing about it. They feel helpless.

I have spoken before about National Grid’s behaviour, which makes me cross. I received a letter yesterday from Llansantffraid community council about the way National Grid behaves. Not only that, an 86-year-old woman contacted me after going to her county councillor. She had been subject to process service, whereby heavy-duty bailiffs turned up at her door and terrified her. The chairman of the council told her straightforwardly to agree with them and to do what they say for the sake of her health. That has happened umpteen times throughout my constituency. My point is not about proper behaviour, but about the attitude to our right to influence what we can do.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his fantastic campaign here and elsewhere on behalf of his constituents. Does he agree that localism means many things, but if it is to mean anything it should take account of local constituents’ views on major projects?

[Glyn Davies]

I do, and onshore wind is not the only area where there is an uprising of local opinion. I am not saying that the Government ignore that, but there is a feeling in mid-Wales that we are being ignored. The area does not have a huge number of people living there. Shropshire is more populous, but the main impact is on mid-Wales. There is a feeling that we are being forgotten and ignored, and that is dangerous because any Government who behave like that will lose people’s support for democracy and disengage them from the process. They will start to ask why they should vote if no one in the world takes any notice.

Last Saturday morning, I went to a bring-and-buy sale at the Royal Oak in Welshpool. There were stalls selling pot plants, books and bric-à-brac to raise money to resist these developments. People had paid taxes on that money, which came from their own pockets, and they were raising it to try to obtain proper legal advice to fight the cause. At the inquiry, lined up against them, will be a row of barristers employed by wind farm companies and National Grid. Those people paid money from their own pockets to defend mid-Wales from something they believe is wrong, but in a supposedly equal position will be a row of barristers representing the companies and paid from the public purse—from subsidy. That is where the money comes from. Not only do people have to pay from their own pockets to try to defend themselves, they must pay for the other side to have the most professional advice imaginable to defend their corner.

I know the Government’s policy, and I hope that they will review it and start to take on board the general view. I have spoken about the matter before, and if we ignore the overwhelming views of the people of mid-Wales and cover the place in wind farms, it will be an abomination in one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, and a great risk to the democracy that we all hold so precious.

16:45

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) on securing this debate. The need for and the impact of electricity network infrastructure is an important and sensitive issue. I welcome the opportunity to explain the need for upgrading our existing electricity network, to clarify the approach when deciding where and how new infrastructure is delivered, and how that relates to the proposals for Montgomeryshire and Shropshire. I understand, not least because my hon. Friend champions them so articulately, his concerns about the impact that onshore wind development can have on communities.

We have made it very clear that onshore wind farms must be appropriately sited and that local communities should be properly engaged and see real benefits from hosting them if they choose to do so. My hon. Friend knows that I cannot comment further on individual applications, but to accommodate the new generation, irrespective of onshore wind, but including nuclear power and offshore wind, the existing transmission network needs to be expanded. Before I turn to the proposed electricity connections in Montgomeryshire and Shropshire, it might be helpful if I explain the wider approach to how we decide on new network infrastructure.

Under the current regulatory framework, it is for the network companies to submit proposals for new infrastructure to the regulator, Ofgem, and to the relevant planning authorities. The proposals must be based on a well-justified need case, such as new generation connection or maintenance of a safe and secure network. The companies also propose routes and types of infrastructure, and in doing so they are required to make a balanced assessment of the benefits of reducing any adverse environmental and other impacts of new infrastructure against the costs and technical challenges of doing so following extensive consultation with stakeholders. Those requirements are set out in their licence obligations under the Electricity Act 1989 to develop economic and efficient networks and to have regard to the preservation of amenity and the mitigation of effects that their activities might have on the natural beauty of the countryside.

In addition to the legal requirement to consider the wider impact of new infrastructure, Ofgem published in July 2013 information for stakeholders on how that should be taken into account. That clarifies the fact that network companies are required to consider wider impacts and alternative solutions to overhead lines. That regulatory approach is reinforced by the Government’s energy national policy statements. They set out the framework for factors to be considered when consenting to an infrastructure project of national significance. They make it clear that for electricity networks cost should not be the only factor in determining the type of network technology used, and that proper consideration should be given to other feasible means of connection, including underground and subsea cables.

[Glyn Davies]

I thank my right hon. Friend for making that point, but all I can say is that when people in mid-Wales speak to National Grid or SP Energy Networks, who will do the 100 miles of cable between the hub, they say that it would cost six times as much to build a line from Shrewsbury to north Shropshire, so it will do that on only a small portion of it. They will not do the rest of the lines purely because of the cost back to the wind farm companies. That is what they tell us. That is what they tell me.

[Michael Fallon]

I understand my hon. Friend’s frustration and how his constituents feel about it. In a few moments I will turn to the specific issues in Montgomeryshire and Shropshire. I was explaining how we have reinforced the framework and laid the additional duty to consider both the impact on the countryside and alternatives such as underground or subsea.

Within that framework, National Grid, which owns the transmission network in England and Wales, published a new approach to building new transmission infrastructure, putting greater emphasis on mitigating the visual impact of new electricity lines while balancing that against the need to manage the impact on costs, which ultimately are funded through our constituents’ energy bills. I hope that that balanced approach provides more reassurance to areas potentially affected by cables and pylons that alternatives to new overhead lines are considered fully and very thoroughly. Since the costs and technical difficulties vary so much from project to project, it is also important that each one is assessed on a case-by-case basis to ensure that the right planning decision is taken each time.

The Government consider that the costs and benefits of undergrounding electricity lines are important. That is why my Department supported an independent study to give clarity on the practicality, whole-life costs and impacts of undergrounding and subsea cabling as alternatives. That report was published in January 2012 and its findings are generally consistent with the comparative costs that National Grid has quoted when evaluating options on current projects. It should provide a useful point of reference to inform the planning process.

Let me turn to the potential need for and development of network infrastructure in Montgomeryshire and Shropshire. The application to connect the proposed wind farms in mid-Wales will be decided by the appropriate planning authorities and Ministers, and it would not be appropriate for me to give a view on the particulars of the project or on the proposed wind farms, which are, as my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire said, currently subject to a public inquiry. However, I certainly recognise that many people feel very strongly about overhead lines and other network infrastructure, and about the impacts they can have on the landscape. Effective consultation with local communities and other interested parties is a vital part of the planning process. When making proposals for new infrastructure, network companies have to demonstrate that alternatives were considered and why the preferred option is justified. That consideration must show that stakeholders have been engaged effectively.

National Grid has been undertaking a pre-planning applications consultation within the framework that I set out earlier. Last year, it sought views on the preferred route option and substation site, including some undergrounding of lines. National Grid has received more than 200 replies to its latest consultation, which closed in November, and more than 500 people attended drop-in events that it hosted. That demonstrates the very strong local interest in the proposals and in their potential impacts. It also shows that National Grid is engaging with local communities as it develops its proposals.

National Grid plans to publish its final proposed design for the connection towards the end of this year for further consultation. After that, it expects to submit its applications for consents in 2015. I am encouraged by the greater stakeholder engagement and consideration being given by National Grid to alternatives to overhead lines since the new planning framework was introduced. That is the behaviour that the planning and regulatory frameworks now require.

I thank my hon. Friend for raising the subject again. It is important that we understand that although our challenge is to build a low-carbon economy, based on an energy mix that meets our environmental targets and security of supply needs, that, in turn, requires an expansion in the transmission network to accommodate the required new generation. However, deciding where and how that infrastructure is delivered requires informed and balanced consideration of a number of factors, including not only costs, but the environmental impacts and the needs of local communities, as well as the needs of the country as a whole.

The planning and regulatory approval processes for new electricity network infrastructure require that stakeholders are properly consulted on those important decisions, and that their views are demonstrably taken into account when the proposals are finalised for final consultation. That process is now under way in Montgomeryshire and Shropshire, where National Grid is consulting stakeholders in developing its proposals. I strongly encourage those with an interest to continue to engage with National Grid in that process and to help ensure that the right decisions are made. I again thank my hon. Friend for drawing the House’s attention to this important set of proposals.

Question put and agreed to.

16:55

Sitting adjourned.