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Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Geoffrey Lofthouse): Order. Time is up.
Electricity Generation (Billingshurst)
1.30 pm
Sir Peter Hordern (Horsham): I have to tell the House a cautionary tale of an event that has occurred in a beautiful part of my constituency, called Five Oaks, which lies between Billingshurst and Slinfold. It is an example of what can happen under existing planning legislation through expansion, by stealth in this case, by the utilities.
Without warning, in an attractive rural area, but close to a number of residential properties, a substantial diesel-fired 10 MW power generating station has been added to the three transformers and small brick shed that previously stood on the site.
The site itself has expanded, and the character of the undertaking has totally changed. The five new diesel generators, with tall gleaming chimneys, together with two massive oil storage tanks and associated pipework, completely dwarf the original set of buildings. The oil tanks and the associated pipework lie outside the fenced enclosures that formed the original transformer station.
The new installation is quite unprotected against vandalism. No proper precautions were taken against the leakage of oil and chemicals into the site and thence into the adjoining watercourse. That is exactly what has happened, with neat diesel being discharged from a field drain from the site.
Mr. Kelly, the clerk of Slinfold parish council, has told me that the council was given no notice of the development. He also told me that a fire has occurred, and a spillage of ethylene and 100 litres of diesel oil, which have polluted the river. That river is next to the watercourse, which flows into the Adur river, a short distance to the south. It is clear from what has happened that the development is a major potential hazard.
The other environmental consequence to consider is the damage caused by noise and the smell of diesel as a result of the plan to operate the generator for three hours every day. The five new generators and chimneys are visually obtrusive in the rural landscape, and it amounts to an industrial eyesore in one of the most beautiful parts of West Sussex.
The local community was offered no notice or opportunity to comment on that industrial intrusion. When I heard about it, I naturally took it up with the company concerned, Southern Electric. Mr. Wilson, the chairman, replied that the reliability of electrical supply to the area had given cause for concern since the storms of 1987.The generators were necessary to improve reliability. He did not just stress the reliability of supply, because he said:
He went on to describe the efforts taken to minimise the effects of noise and emissions as well the visual impact of the development. It seems to me that the best way to minimise them is not to build the plant in the first place.
The project was apparently discussed with the planning department of Horsham district council, which confirmed that it was a permitted development under conditions set out in the Town and Country Planning (General Development) Order 1988.
I wrote to the Minister for Industry and Energy and asked him why those units, if they had to be built in the first place, could not have been built in an existing industrial zone. I wrote to the chairman of Southern Electric and asked him why he had not consulted local people. I asked him how he would like to wake up one morning to see a large diesel-fired 10 MW power generating station erected outside his office in Littlewick Green. I never had a reply to that point.
I also wrote to the Secretary of State for the Environment, asking him to call in the application, because I could see no reason why that type of development could not occur piecemeal all over the country. I wonder whether that is what the Government are prepared to see. Of course electricity companies want to make the best use of technology, but that natural desire should be measured and weighed against environmental issues in the normal planning process.
The Secretary of State replied to me on 19 January and said that he understood that Southern Electric constructed the station under permitted development rights comprised within part XVII of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995. My right hon. Friend told me that, notwithstanding that statutory undertakers were not required to submit a formal planning application, they had agreed to consult the local planning authority and to publicise their intentions locally well in advance of work starting. In the case of Five Oaks, that, regrettably, was never done. Horsham district council says that Southern Electric's contact was informal, and quite unrelated to whether there would be any significant effect on the environment.
It is possible, apparently, for local planning authorities to make directions under article 4 of the general permitted development order to bring specific cases of permitted development within the scope of the development control system. That is possible, however, only in advance of the development, and depends, of course, on the planning authority being told exactly what the electricity company has in mind.
In any event, any such direction must be cleared subsequently by the Department of the Environment. The record to date shows that the Department seldom overturns the judgment of the local authority. So not only does the local authority require the endorsement of the DOE, but it may find that it is necessary to pay compensation for any development that is not carried out.
There then followed a meeting between Southern Electric and local residents, which should have been held long before, during which the company admitted that there had been just one failure on the 33 KW line during the past three years. There was therefore no need for undue excitement on its part to build the extra plant.
I then heard from Lord Crickhowell, who hon. Members will know is the chairman of the National Rivers Authority. He wrote to me saying that the installation of such a generating station falls outside the control of the planning authority and Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution. Why should that be? After all, pollution is pollution wherever it occurs and whatever the size of the development.
Moreover, it appeared from the meeting with local residents that the plant is on call to the grid and Southern Electric's supply company. That demonstrates not only that
it was intended that the plant should generate extra power for distribution, but that assurances about operating hours were without meaning. So the plant can be called upon whenever commercial logic informs the generating company that it would be wise to use that extra power rather than to rely on the grid. That was never revealed to Horsham district council. It is therefore not merely a plant erected to cover shortages of supply, but a commercial undertaking.
Residents were told that, in an emergency, staff would be summoned from Petersfield, which is about 45 minutes away. They discovered that no arrangement had been made with the fire brigade. It was at that point that the Council for the Protection of Rural England became interested, and lent its support, mentioning not least the fact that, if such a development were to be allowed at Five Oaks under the permitted development legislation, there would be no reason why such developments should not occur in other parts of the country as often as generating companies wanted them.
My hon. Friend the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Energy told me that the procedures under the general development order would not apply where a station had a capacity of more than 50 MW. There lies the beginning of a solution. If that is the case, why do we not reduce the limit from 50 MW to a much lower figure? Southern Electric is planning a 40 MW station near Reading, and perhaps four or five others.
If Southern Electric is planning to do that, what about all the other electricity generating companies? Under existing legislation, they may find it possible to use the latest technology to put up such generators all over the country in the most beautiful rural areas--including yours, Mr. Deputy Speaker. This is a matter of great importance.
What is to be done? My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will not call in the application, because it is impossible to do so when permission has been granted by the local authority. He says that he is satisfied that the present system whereby the statutory undertakers consult local planning authorities and publicise proposals which would have a significant effect on amenities and the environment works well. He is not persuaded that he should amend the general development order in respect of the permitted development rights of statutory undertakers.
However, this is a case in which the existing system has not worked as intended. I was therefore pleased to learn that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State intends shortly to seek tenders for a research programme on the use of permitted development rights by statutory undertakers as part of the Department of the Environment's planning research programme for 1996-97.
I understand that the project would, among other things, establish the extent to which statutory undertakers rely on permitted development rights to carry out their activities--here is evidence for them--consider the scope for those rights to be altered, and examine the operation and effectiveness of the non-statutory consultation arrangements.
I hope that this short debate may be drawn to the attention of the researchers and amenities societies, which may have an interest in the matter. The case has shown that the statutory undertakers do not always conform with what is expected of them. They do not always tell planning authorities all they should about their intentions, nor do
they consult local people when they should. The result is that electricity generating stations can spring up all over the country, without heed to environmental considerations and without consultation with local people.
"In addition, small generating sets will be operated whenever pool prices of electricity is greater than the cost of generation. This is expected to be in the region of 3 to 4 hours on a winter's week day, and electricity wholesale prices have reached record levels recently."
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