Protesters rally against rural wind farm plans

HUNDREDS of people have travelled to the Senedd to protest about the impact of wind turbines and wind farms on rural Wales.

- RUTH MOSALSKI

People gather on the steps of the Senedd in Cardiff Bay to protest against plans to build pylons and wind turbines in rural Wales

A protest called “Protect Wales” was held, with people travelling from across mid Wales to be at the Senedd.

The protesters say developers including GreenGEN Cymru and Bute Energy plan to “industrialise rural Wales” and their plans for wind turbines, some more than 220m high, would be catastrophic for people, homes and nature across Wales.

Cardiff-based Bute Energy is the company behind many of the energy parks already planned. The company is known to already be behind 16 energy parks in Wales including three within 17 square miles of each other in the Radnorshire hills.

GreenGEN is planning two pylon highways to Carmarthen to connect all the proposed wind farms. The plans have involved the companies trying to gain access to land in order to carry out the work.

Jenny Chryss, part of the RE-think group, spoke at the event yesterday in Cardiff Bay. She told those gathered on the Senedd steps that they were protesting against “greedy property developers” who would change Wales, which “will never be the same again”.

“Of course we must address climate change, but do we need to industrialise rural Wales?” she asked.

She told WalesOnline: “Bute Energy and a number of other developers are planning to build massive wind farms across Wales.