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Minutes of the Extraordinary meeting held on Thursday 19th October 2023 at 7:30pm in the Community Centre.
Draft minutes are published in accordance with the requirements of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 and are subject to approval at the next ordinary meeting of the Community Council.

Present:
Councillors: Bethan Griffiths (Chairperson), Emmanuel Kincaid, Eirwen James, Gareth Jones.
(Due to technical issues caused by the Council email provider’s server updates, members had not received the meeting invitation emailed by the clerk. However, public notice of the agenda and meeting date had been posted and publicised as usual.)
Grasshopper Communications and Leslie Walker – Senior project Manager Galileo Energy UK (Wales) – remote attendance via Zoom.

1) To receive apologies.
Councillors: Dafydd Lloyd Jones (Vice Chairperson) Pat Parry, John Griffiths, Angela Evans, Rhodri Evans, Caryl Jones.

2) Personal Matters.
None.

3) Declarations of interest.
None.

4) Public participation.
Section 48 of The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 makes provision for public participation at full community council meetings or those part of meetings which are open to the public. The Chair will give members of the public in attendance reasonable opportunity to make representations about any items of business on the agenda. Specific matters for discussion are to be submitted to the Clerk 7 days in advance of scheduled ordinary meetings (usually the 2nd Monday of the month)
No members of the public were in attendance, and no specific items were submitted for discussion prior to the meeting.

5) Presentation to Council by Galileo Energy UK to introduce initial proposals concerning Bryn Cadwgan Energy Park prior to the early engagement public consultations due to take place during November 2023
Senior Project Manager (Wales) Leslie Walker together with two representatives from Grasshopper Communications (Media Consultants for Galileo Energy UK) were in attendance to present details regarding Galileo Energy UK’s initial proposal to develop a 75-megawatt windfarm, to be comprised of up to 25 Wind turbines (maximum blade tip height of 230m) and solar photovoltaic panels and battery energy storage system technology. The company is part of a larger parent company: ‘Galileo’ a European, multi-technology, renewable energy owner, and operator who have currently developed 7-gigawatt (GW) pipeline of various renewable energy technologies worldwide.

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In summary the presentation outlined the following regarding the DNS (Development of National Significance) proposal for Bryn Cadwgan Energy Park:

i. The Windfarm is to be situated over 1000 hectares within the Cambrian Mountain Range and 13km south east of the Bannau Brycheiniog, with the majority of the turbines to be located in forestry to the east of the site, Carmarthenshire and two within Ceredigion; on land currently used for grazing farmland and forestry which is classified as grade 4 (poor quality agricultural land), and non-agricultural land on the Welsh Government’s Predictive Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) Map.

ii. Councillors present raised issues concerning the fact that the current proposal was situated outside of assessed areas identified within the current WG strategy ( Future Wales the National Plan 2024) and that the current proposal was situated in close proximity to a SSSI site, with minimal allowance for a buffer zone. The Galileo representative responded that ongoing biodiversity surveys were being undertaken( of these an ornithological survey was completed in 2022 and others ongoing throughout 2023/2024) and that a part one peat probing survey had also been carried to assess scope for developing the site to house turbines; It was also reiterated d that WG national policies were broadly in favour of renewable energy development such as the proposal to provide provenance of an independent renewable energy network Pan Wales and in order to meet NetZero targets.

iii. Galileo also confirmed that they had agreement in principle for a grid connection at Ferry side, pending planning approval for the DNS proposal, however, presently there were no further details concerning the route/connection.

iv. Furthermore, Galileo outlined their commitment to working with the community to develop the proposals and would be hosting informal community consultations during November 2023 to provide an opportunity for local residents and businesses to learn more about the project, ask questions, and provide feedback. After this early engagement consultation, a statutory 42-day consultation process will be undertaken later in 2024.

v. Regarding the latter, Grasshopper Communications confirmed that the Consultation Website for the DNS proposal would be going live on Thursday the 26 October 2023 ,and would contain an overview of the development proposal, timetable for statutory/non-statutory processes, including consultations online exhibition and feedback form for consultees to send in their responses; it was also confirmed however that should anyone wish to make contact and /or send in hard copies of their responses they could do so using the provided Freepost address. They anticipated that 1830 households and 49 businesses over the Llanddewi Brefi , Ffarmers and Pumsaint areas would receive newsletters, giving a brief outline description of the scheme and to invite residents and business owners to attend drop in events to be held on the 8th and 9th of November 2023 at Llanddewi Brefi Village Hall and Neuadd Pumsaint Hall respectively. Following on from this the deadline to submit informal consultation response would be 30 November 2023.

vi. It was agreed that Grasshopper communications would pass on the PowerPoint presentation slides from the meeting in addition to posters for the forthcoming consultation events to the clerk; the Clerk also to provide link to the Zoom recording of the meeting to all Councillors before next meeting of Council to be held 13 November 2023.

6) Questions to the Chair; None – Meeting ended 8:15 pm

Mae'r dudalen hon hefyd ar gael yn: Cymraeg