HC Deb 10 December 2001 vol 376 c665W
Adam Price

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry for what reason her Department did not allocate the funding requested by the Awel Amen Tame to develop Wales' first community owned wind farm. [166631

Mr. Wilson

The Department provided £70,000 of funding for Awel Aman Tawe for the initial phase of their community wind farm development programme. This was used to fund a number of awareness raising and information dissemination activities and culminated in a local referendum to assess the level of local support for the proposed wind farm.

A further request for funding of the second phase of the project was received in response to a call for proposals for our new and renewable energy programme. That was assessed and rejected by a panel of independent assessors and by our programme managers. Broadly, much of the work content was concerned with normal development activities and only some elements seemed novel.

Of the £100 million for renewables announced by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in March, it has been decided to allocate £10 million to support community developments across a range of technologies. Once this scheme has been developed, Awel Aman Tawe may be interested in applying for further support.