At today’s (20 January) meeting of the Countryside Agency, the Board agreed to pursue its objections to proposals for a substantial wind farm development at Whinash in Cumbria at the forthcoming public inquiry (from 19 April).
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Whinash windfarm public inquiry - 20 January 2005

WHINASH WIND FARM PUBLIC INQUIRY - Countryside Agency Board to present its case for objection


At today’s (20 January) meeting of the Countryside Agency, the Board agreed to pursue its objections to proposals for a substantial wind farm development at Whinash in Cumbria at the forthcoming public inquiry (from 19 April).

Stuart Burgess, chairman of the Countryside Agency, said: “The Countryside Agency has a statutory* responsibility to designate and conserve areas of outstanding landscape quality and to encourage the conservation of landscape character everywhere.   We also support the concept of developing all sources of renewable energy, including wind technologies, where this does not conflict with other environmental objectives or priorities.

“At our meeting today we reaffirmed our position and agreed that, as statutory guardians of nationally important landscapes, we should pursue our objections to the proposals for substantial wind farm development at Whinash. This is of national significance and will test the proper application of policy for proposals that directly affect our national parks and finest countryside.  

“The main issues of concern to the Board relate to the impact of the development on the neighbouring Lake District National Park   and the Yorkshire Dales National Park further to the east; the impact on the intrinsic quality of the landscape of the development site itself and immediate surrounding area; and the impact on the character of the wider landscape from which the proposed development is visible.” 

The Countryside Agency advocates a strong planning system that protects and enhances the countryside as a national asset and encourages the types of sustainable development that are ‘good enough to approve’. Its approach to the consideration of significant involvement in planning casework (including wind farm proposals) is set out in our planning statement Planning Tomorrow’s Countryside – and its policy on renewable energy was set out in Board Paper AP99/50 - agreed in December 1999.

Today’s Board Paper - AP05/06 - is available for download at the bottom of the following page: Click Here

Note to editors:

*National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.

The Countryside Agency is the statutory body working to make the quality of life better for people in the countryside and the quality of the countryside better for everyone. It is a non-departmental body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. The Countryside Agency is changing. As the result of Defra’s Rural Strategy published in July 2004, from 1 April 2005 it will: 

  • establish a distinctive new body to act as a rural advocate, expert adviser and independent watchdog with a particular focus on disadvantage; 
  • its landscape, access and recreation teams are working with its partners, English Nature and the Rural Development Service, regionally and nationally, which will bring together its activities to improve services for customers, work effectively with partners and contribute to sustainable development as it moves towards a new integrated agency to be formed following primary legislation; 
  • and it will transfer most of its current socio-economic delivery functions to Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and Defra for delivery through Government Offices.