2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 8 January 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Andrew RT Davies Andrew RT Davies Conservative 2:36, 8 January 2019

Leader of the house—no, it's not leader of the house anymore, is it? It's organiser—organiser. Can the organiser please arrange for a statement to come forward from the planning Minister in relation to a Welsh Government decision that was made on the Hendy windfarm? I've raised this several times with her predecessor, but there are two issues that do need clarifying here. One: who is responsible for making sure that the conditions attached to the permission are undertaken by the developer before development starts? Is it the Welsh Government, or is it the local authority, given that the Welsh Government made the decision to approve it? And, two, I had assumed that the developer would have to be compliant with the conditions before any work was undertaken on the site, because, as I understand it, the developer is trying to get work undertaken so that they can get the turbines erected, to meet the renewable heat incentive obligation that Ofgem set. If they are not compliant with the conditions, surely that is a breach of the RHI scheme. And I do think it is incumbent on the Welsh Government to clarify exactly what the discharging of conditions will amount to, when, obviously, these will be passed back to the local authority.