Lib Dem Councillor says Council should waive the charges for mini wind turbine planning applications

11.43.59am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 20th Oct 2006

Cllr David Ward being interviewed by Radio Leeds with a B&Q turbine

Chair of the Bradford North Area committee Councillor David Ward is campaigning to persuade Bradford Council to waive the charges for processing planning applications for people who want to install mini wind turbines on their homes.

"It seems to me to be a nonsense that the government is giving grants of up to 30% of the cost of installing a mini wind turbine for the Council to take back over a hundred pounds in fees for processing a planning application" says Councillor David Ward, Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley Ward.

"The Council should give people proper advice when they approach the planning department such as making sure that people have done all the other work to save energy in their homes such as proper insulation, low energy light bulb, sealing draughts and having high efficiency boilers before they process planning applications for wind turbines. Then the Council should process the planning applications for free."

"Local DIY stores are selling mini wind turbines and seem to say that planning permission is not required. On enquiring at the Planning Department at the Council they tell me that in most cases people will have to get planning permission and pay a large fee before they install mini turbines on their homes. It seems unfair to me that they then have to pay this fee to help reduce global warming."

"Global climate change is a huge problem that will cause huge problems if it is not tackled" said Councillor David Ward. "I want the Council to make it as easy as possible for people to generate their own electricity by providing proper advice and waiving the planning application fee."

Most of the energy we use comes from fossil fuels and nuclear power stations. During the burning of these fossil fuels, emissions are released into the atmosphere which impact upon our environment. These include carbon and sulphur dioxides which contribute to climate change and acid rain. Both fossil and nuclear fuels depend on limited resources.

"We must do all we can to generate electricity locally" said Councillor David Ward. "The council must do all it can to make this happen. I shall be asking officers to prepare a report for the Bradford North Area Committee to see what is being done to set targets for the micro-generation of electricity in Bradford."