Councils consult on windfarms in 'Gwynedd'

Wind farms especially the new generation of wind turbines; which are much larger than those we currently have on Ynys Môn, have of late become a contentious issue. The pressure group Anglesey against wind turbines "exist to oppose any further erection of commercial on shore wind turbines on the grounds that they are unsightly, damaging to our fragile economy, uneconomic, noisy and damaging to our wildlife."

Large non-commercial wind turbines being OK I assume?

I myself have previously stated the in my humble opinion wind farms are the short term answer to our electricity needs, as part of a sustainable national grid.  However having said that I think 'Anglesey against wind turbines' are doing a good job in that wind turbines "has recently become a hotly debated topic".

As Paul Williams (aka The Druid) points out, even the Council has taken notice. Last week Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Planning Policy Unit published a draft Supplementary Planning Guidance document which you can download from Ynys Môn Council website.

The consultation period runs till Friday 10th February 2012.

Update: With thanks to Mairede Thomas (see below comments) who makes reference to the following documents:

Electricity Market Reform (EMR) White Paper 2011 (July 2011)

and

Written ministerial statement by Chris Huhne on Electricity Market Reform: technical update. (December 2011)

or Press release by Chris Huhne, Energy and Climate Change Secretary.

GVA by 6 industries.

With the May elections for the Welsh Assembly not that far off I though I’d look at how Wales is doing in comparison with the rest of the UK. I start with GVA by industries the first chart being for Anglesey

Then we can compare it with Gwynedd, which in terms of growth is very similar to Anglesey aside for the growth in public administration, education, health and other services

Then if we look at Swansea we can see they have done well in both public administration, education, health and other services and business services and finance

Cheshire in comparison does quite well in many sectors with business services and finance showing the greatest growth

And finally Edinburgh, who as Cheshire have seen the greatest growth in Business services and finance.

Data from ONS and based on 3:8 GVA1,2 by 6 industries (constrained to headline NUTS2) at current basic prices. I add my usual disclaimer about the need when comparing regions based on GVA to exercise caution.