Like Russell George, I am deeply concerned about the potential impact—indeed, the likely impact—of the national development framework upon the landscapes of mid and west Wales. I'm an enthusiastic member of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, and I see in this document the fundamental aim of the Welsh Government, which is to wreck the landscapes of mid and west Wales in order to conduct a virtue-signalling exercise in relation to renewable energy.

Huge blocks of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Powys are designated for solar and wind, and big areas of Pembrokeshire for solar farms. We've just spent some time this afternoon debating the effects of plastic pollution. Well, at least with plastic you can pick it up and remove it, but when the hills of Wales are covered with windfarms and solar panel parks, then they are going to be there for a generation or more, and as Russell George has just pointed out, mid and west Wales relies on its landscape to generate a huge quantity of the economic activity within the region. Tourism is fundamental to the Welsh economy in these areas. I think it's monstrous that the Welsh Government, which is overwhelmingly urban in its representation and its interests, will be now riding roughshod over the interests and opinions of the people of mid and west Wales.

What we're seeing here is a strategic centralisation of planning and planning decision making. The national development framework and 'Planning Policy Wales Edition 10' will override any strategic development plan that might be developed and the local development plans that are currently in existence. We've seen this already in a number of controversial instances. The Welsh Government has ridden roughshod over local opinion in relation to the Hendy windfarm, for example, near Llandrindod Wells, where the local authority rejected the proposal, the planning inspector appointed by the Minister rejected the proposal and the Minister just approved it nevertheless.

The developments of national significance that are at the heart of all this, which are identified in the national development framework, will mean that decision taking in these areas is taken away altogether from local people and their representatives at a local level, and will be ultimately harboured in Cardiff. You know, when devolution was introduced, it was supposed to bring Government closer to the people, but I don't think that the people of mid and west Wales, and less still people in north Wales, feel closer to Cardiff than they feel close to Westminster. And so, the result of this national development framework, I believe, will further undermine the support for devolution, which has been draining away in any event in recent years.

Developments of national significance are windfarm developments, for example, of over 10 MW. Compared with England, that's very, very small, because the threshold figure in England is 50 MW. What does this mean? It means that there's a presumption in favour of development for these kinds of schemes, and associated acceptance of landscape change. Well, that's a fine phrase, isn't it—'landscape change'. Well, it is a change, isn't it, from glorious countryside to massive wind turbine developments that could be up to 250m in height. You can't avoid seeing these things and it completely wrecks any enjoyment of the countryside and I think will be a dagger aimed at the heart of the tourism industry in mid and west Wales.

It overrides the importance of landscape, amenity, heritage, nature conservation and, indeed, the tourist industry itself. And, as the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales Brecon and Radnor branch, of which I'm a member, has pointed out, recent flagship legislation has committed Welsh public bodies to sustainable management of natural resources, sustainable development and the enhancement of resilient ecosystems, and also to work towards the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 goals, seven of them. Well, the promotion of industrial-scale renewable development, including wind turbines of up to 250m in height across much of rural Wales, coupled with a permissive policy that will reduce the weight to be given to local concerns isn't compatible with the objectives of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 or indeed the well-being of future generations Act itself, or indeed the nature recovery plan. 

So, I believe that here, we've got a disaster in the making of a really colossal kind. And we've seen a gross abuse of the system already. There's another windfarm near Llangurig called Bryn Blaen, which Members, I'm sure, will be well familiar with. Planning permission for that was given in 2016 and it hasn't generated a watt of electricity, but the accounts of U and I Group PLC, the company that ultimately owns it, for 2019 show that they have generated £4.7 million-worth of cash—that's taxpayers' money, basically, that's gone into their pockets, out of Wales and into England, for no benefit in terms of saving the planet, either. It's pure rent-seeking abuse. And that's what disturbs me about this whole—