Issue - meetings
Meeting: 13/07/2026 - Planning Committee (Item 8)
8 APPLICATION No C24/1032/04/LL Land By LL23 7NR, Frongoch, LL23 7NR 
PDF 306 KB
Temporary
operation of a meteorological mast and ancillary structures for a period of up
to five years.
LOCAL
MEMBER: Councillor Elwyn Edwards
Additional documents:
- Plans, item 8
PDF 3 MB
- Webcast for APPLICATION No C24/1032/04/LL Land By LL23 7NR, Frongoch, LL23 7NR
Decision:
DECISION: To
approve
To
delegate powers to the Senior Planning Manager to approve the application,
subject to the following conditions:-
Conditions
1.
The development must commence within five
years of the date of this decision.
2.
The development must be undertaken in
accordance with the following approved plans and documents.
3.
The mast hereby approved must be taken down
and the land restored to its previous condition within 5 years to the date of
commission. The applicant must inform the Local Planning Authority of the
commission date within 3 months of that date.
4.
Prior to the commencement of the development
(including the land work and clearance of vegetation), a detailed Method
Statement that describes how the site will be returned to its original
condition will be submitted to the Local Planning Authority, and it must be
approved in writing. The approved
measures should be adhered to and implemented in full.
5.
No development, including site clearance,
will commence until a Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP) has
been submitted to the Local Planning Authority and approved in writing by it.
6.
No development or phase of the development to
commence until a Breeding Bird Protection Plan (BBPP) has been submitted to the
Local Planning Authority and approved by it.
7.
No development shall be permitted until a
biodiversity enhancement plan has been submitted to the Local Planning
Authority and approved in writing by it. The development will be carried out in
accordance with the approved details.
8.
No clearance of vegetation, land work or
building activities will be permitted during the bird nesting season (1 March
to 31 August inclusive) unless this has been agreed in writing beforehand with
the Local Planning Authority. When work
is required during this period, a survey of the site must be undertaken by a
competent ecologist no more than 48 hours prior to commencing the work. Any
recommendations given must be fully implemented, and if operational nests are
found, an appropriate protection zone must be established and maintained until
the chicks have fledged.
9. Devices to divert birds must be installed on each external supporting
wire of the mast at a distance of no more than 2
metres in length along them all prior to the mast becoming operational. These
devices must be maintained throughout the development's lifespan. Any damaged,
removed or disconnected devices must be replaced within one month of finding
them.
10. Prior to commencement
of building any meteorological masts, or using any building equipment or
temporary structure(s) of 50 metres or more in height (above ground level), the
developer must submit an aviation lighting scheme to be approved by Cyngor Gwynedd
jointly with the Ministry of Defence, noting how the development will be
illuminated throughout its lifespan to maintain the requirements of civil and
military flying as determined necessary by the Ministry of Defence.
This should include:
a) The details of any building equipment and temporary structures with a total height of under 50 metres or more (above ground level) that ... view the full decision text for item 8
Minutes:
Temporary operation
of a meteorological mast and associated structures for a period of up to five
years.
Attention was drawn to the
late observations form that included observations from Natural Resources Wales
(NRW) agreeing with the conclusion of the Habitat Regulations Assessment.
a)
The
Senior Planning Officer - Minerals and Waste highlighted that the application
related to the erection and operation of a temporary anemometer mast for a
period of five years on an upland near the summit of Pen y Bwlch Gwyn. The mast
would be a steel lattice structure up to 100m high, supported by guy wires and
equipped with meteorological monitoring equipment, including anemometers and
weathervanes. It was noted that many important landscape and conservation
designations were relatively close - Eryri National Park, the proposed boundary
of Glyndŵr National Park and the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB; this site was also
within the vicinity of several designated European sites, such as the SAC, SPA
and RAMSAR sites - River Dee and Llyn Tegid, Migneint-Arenig-Dduallt and Berwyn.
In the context of the
principle of the proposal, it was noted that there was no specific policy in
the LDP relating to meteorology masts. However, the purpose of the proposed
mast was to collect meteorology data to assess the viability of the potential wind
energy development in the future, and therefore the proposal was considered as
a type of infrastructure associated with a renewable energy development against
Strategic Policy PS 7 of the LDP; a policy that supported renewable energy
technologies, as well as Policy ADN 1 that related to wind energy developments
on land.
It was reported,
since adopting the LDP, the Strategic Search Areas noted in TAN 8 had been
replaced by the Pre-assessed Areas noted in Future Wales: The National Plan
2040. Reference was made to Policy 17 of Future
Wales which established presumptions in favour of wind energy developments on a
large scale within those areas, whilst Policy 18 provided the relevant criteria
to assess such proposals.
It was reiterated
that the site in question had been located outside of the nearest Pre-assessed
Area for wind energy. However, Future Wales and Planning Policy Wales did not
prevent wind energy developments or associated infrastructure outside those areas.
Instead, the Pre-assessed Areas stated where the Welsh Government had assessed
that large-scale wind developments could be accepted in principle, without
preventing consideration of proposals in other locations.
In addition, Planning Policy Wales stated that energy-generating projects on the land with a capacity of between 10MW and 350MW were determined by Welsh Ministers through the Developments of National Significance (DNS) process and assessed against the Future Wales policies. To this end, it was noted that a notice of intention had been submitted to Welsh Ministers for a potential wind farm on the same site. However, the existing application does not relate to the wind farm itself and weighting could not be given to the principle of that development when assessing the application. The anemometer mast must ... view the full minutes text for item 8