A newspaper has accused the Welsh Government of spoiling the Welsh countryside to spite the English. A headline in the Daily Telegraph suggested the Cardiff Bay administration had opted for onshore wind farm developments rather than offshore projects in a bid to avoid benefiting the Crown Estate, which is controlled by the UK Government.
The headline reads: "Wales accused of spoiling countryside with wind farms to spite the English". It appears to be based partly on quotes from Fay Jones, Conservative MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, who criticised the Welsh government for taking a nationalist policy stance on green energy - although she doesn't refer to the countryside being spoiled or the English being spited.
Ms Jones told The Telegraph that the Welsh Government wasn't interested in offshore wind because it wouldn't get any financial benefits from it. She said: "It doesn’t seem to have offshore in its sights because it won’t derive all of the benefit from that.”
However a Welsh government spokesman said it is pro-offshore wind. A spokesman said: “We are strong supporters of offshore wind, including floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea, and have been pressing the Crown Estate to develop a long term plan to secure green energy in a way that can bring economic benefits to our communities.”
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The Crown Estate owns around half the coastline and seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Separately the Crown Estate Scotland is the equivalent north of the border. This means it collects fees from the development of offshore projects.
The Welsh Government is responsible for onshore wind projects while offshore wind and marine energy within 12 nautical miles from Welsh shores is not devolved. Offshore wind project responsibility is split between the Crown Estate, which leases the seabed, and the UK Government for approval and grid connection.
Ms Jones, whose own constituencey has plans underway for a major onshore wind farm development, continued: “People absolutely hate this project. It tells you a lot about how the Welsh government sees rural Wales as just a cash cow.”
The Welsh government’s Future Wales strategy document said it supported offshore wind but that these projects did not fall within its remit. Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts recently called for the Crown Estate to be devolved to Wales. She said it would give Wales more input in how profits from new floating wind farms planned off the Welsh coast would be spent.
Meanwhile Ross Evans, of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), a Welsh countryside charity, told The Telegraph: “There is a reluctance to get behind it [offshore wind]. The biggest reason is because they haven't got control over it because it is up to the Crown Estate and the UK Government for the major projects offshore.”
He said there is also a risk that offshore projects will not count towards the Welsh government’s green energy targets if they come ashore in England. He added: “They just want Wales to be a net exporter of energy and sod the rest of the UK, that is the impression I get.”
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