Support us from £3/month
We deal with almost 1000 cases a year assisting communities, groups and individuals in protecting their local spaces and paths in all parts of England and Wales. Can you help us by joining as a member?
‘The unique landscape of Mynydd y Gwair should be treasured not trashed.’
So says the Open Spaces Society(1) as the public inquiry opens into RWE Npower Renewables’ application to build 19 wind turbines on the lovely mountain top of Mynydd y Gwair, eight miles north of Swansea. The inquiry started on Tuesday 20 July.
We are among the many objectors to the scheme, which was rejected by Swansea Council by a massive 40 votes to one on 21 January 2010.
Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘This wind factory, with its associated tracks, buildings and other structures, is totally alien to this beautiful, open, mountain top.
‘The land is common, and people have the right to walk and ride over every square inch of it, enjoying the wonderful, wide vistas and the freedom and fresh air.
‘Such an expanse of open land close to Swansea and other conurbations is especially precious.
‘The developers plan to take a chunk from the heart of the common and replace it with land on the edge. But that is no compensation—either to the public or the commoners.
‘Some things are just too valuable to sacrifice. Mynydd y Gwair is one of them,’ Kate concludes.