A long road to protecting an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

The Frogmore Estuary area in South Devon has been described by Devon County Council as "The jewel in the crown of Devon." This living landscape is highly protected and a nationally designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) - for the benefit of everyone.

After 2 years of hard work by the Local Community to protect this beautiful part of the South Hams this fight is reaching its “final hurdle” with a Public Inquiry.

To achieve success the best planning and legal case needs to be put forward and of course this needs funding.

What has happened in the legal case

The proposal is for a 120ft turbine at the head of the beautiful Frogmore Estuary – part of the larger Salcombe and Kingsbridge Estuary. Two South Hams District Planning Officers, their Landscape Officer and the Organisation of the AONB ALL strongly recommended refusal on the basis of harm to the AONB (see the Council's planning reference is 43/2567/13F). However, the South Hams Planning Committee granted planning permission as they said that all the harm identified would be outweighed by the financial gain to the planning applicant.

The Court quashed that planning permission following a judicial review by a local resident.

The planning applicant then asked for a redetermination of his planning application and again the Planning Officers and the AONB Board recommended refusal, this time on the basis of the harm to the AONB and harm to local heritage assets, and again the Planning Committee resolved by a narrow margin to grant planning permission. However, before the Council could issue the planning permission, the Secretary of State for Local Government and Communities Greg Clarke called in the matter so he could decide whether or not to grant planning permission in the light of his new policy on onshore wind turbine development as set out in his recent Written Ministerial Statement on wind turbines and planning considerations issued on 18th June 2015.

A planning inquiry is therefore now to be held so that a planning inspector can report to the Secretary of State with his recommendation to approve or refuse and the Secretary of State will then decide whether to grant planning permission or not.

Planning inquiries are expensive and the local community would like to instruct a barrister and an expert landscape and heritage consultant to help make their case for them but they need to raise monies to do so as funds are now exhausted by the judicial review and associated matters.

The Wind Turbine will affect the whole of the Local Community and be visible for miles across the South Hams.

What we are fighting for

The iconic Frogmore Estuary within the AONB must be saved to preserve the Landscape and countryside. This is an area dependent on Tourism and Retirement to support the local economy, upon which all the local tradesman and small businesses depend.

What are we raising funds to do

The Local Community have already raised £20,000 to undertake the legal work so far. However we still need at least £20,000 more for our legal fees, to ensure a compelling case is put to the Planning Inspectorate at the Inquiry.

About the claimant

The claimant is a local resident, who has support from the Local Community who have got behind him to fight this application due to the impact it will have on the Landscape, the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and tourism that so many local people depend on.

Fast facts

### Name of our case South Hams - Winslade Turbine Planning Application ### What’s at stake That all the professionals' advice – Planning and Landscape Officers, and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Organisation’s recommendations for refusal, are accepted and the Landscape and countryside of the iconic Frogmore Estuary protected. ## What’s the next step Having been Called In for the Secretary of State to make the Planning decision a public Inquiry will be held Feb/March 2016 ## Our legal team: Susan Ring of Richard Buxton Solicitors