BUILDING a mountainside wind farm in Blaenau Gwent would ruin the character of an area which has "been raped by the energy industry in the past", a public inquiry heard yesterday.

Pennant Wind Energy Ventures Ltd applied for permission to build four 328-foot high turbines on Mynydd James between Cwmtillery and Blaina, but Blaenau Gwent threw out the application in January last year.

The developers, who are working on the project with Eco2 Ltd, appealed against the decision prompting a planning inspectorate inquiry.

Representing Blaenau Gwent Council, Tina Douglass said: “This area has been raped by the energy industry in the past.

“The slowly healing scars of the industrial past continue to mark many of the main valleys making the great open sweeps of the hills all the more valuable by contrast.”

She said assessment had shown nearby residents would also be exposed to increased noise as well as to potential land slippage from the site.

But Marcus Trinick, representing Pennant Wind Energy Ventures said there is a need for renewable energy schemes including onshore wind farms to help meet EU renewable energy targets, which state 20 per cent of the EU’s energy is to come from renewable sources by 2020.

He said: “This scheme makes a small but important contribution towards the very challenging targets.

“There are no fundamental local, environmental or other issues which should defeat the project.”

Local campaign group Save Coity and Mynydd James (SCAM) and Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) are also presenting cases against the proposals.

Environmental expert Geoff Sinclair, representing SCAM, and Brian West, representing CCW, both said although their clients supported policy on renewable energy, this was small in relation to the harmful impact the turbines would have on the land.

The inquiry, at Blaina Evangelical Hall, is expected to last six days.