§ Mr. CarmichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many objections were made by his Department against pre-applications to build onshore wind farms in each of the last five years; and how many pre-applications for onshore wind farms were made in each of these years. [159735]
§ Mr. CaplinIn the period 1999 to 2003 the Ministry of Defence objected to a total of 796 pre-planning applications for onshore wind power projects.
Proposals Objections 19991 65 39 20001 158 51 2001 333 141 2000 985 398 2001 685 2167 1There was no formal wind farm safeguarding team within the Department prior to August 2000, and statistics for 1999 and part of 2000 are, therefore, b iced on the best data currently available. 2260 awaiting resolution. Many pre-applications are made by developers purely speculatively, and there is no data currently available to show how many pre-applications to which the Department does not state an objection are actually followed through. A here the Department does raise an objection MOD officials are always willing to work with the developer in order to determine whether a mutually acceptable solution can be found to enable a development to go ahead.