The Campaign to Stop Calderdale Windfarm, a major application on Walshaw Moor, have just provided this update on their efforts to ensure protection for peatland. There are clear parallels with Scout Moor 2 and we will follow this discussion closely. The original article can be found here:

Calderdale TUC asks Halifax MP to support call to ban windfarms on protected peatland

Here is the letter that the Calderdale TUC rep to Stronger Together to Stop Calderdale WIndfarm recently sent to Kate Dearden, MP for Halifax.

To: Kate Dearden MP,

As a Halifax voter I am writing in my role as Calderdale Trades Union Council treasurer and delegate to STRONGER TOGETHER – STOP CALDERDALE WIND FARM, to urge you to support our call on the government to ban wind farms on protected peatland in England.

As you’ll know a company called Calderdale Wind Farm proposes to construct a 100MW+ wind farm on the highly protected Walshaw Moor. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0344pq9melo
In October it announced its intention to submit a Development Consent Order application under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects planning regulations. The Planning Inspectorate has told us that if they want to do this, the developer will have to restart the scoping process and submit a new Scoping report to them.

The proposed onshore wind farm – the first in England to be proposed for a peatland site – follows the Government’s decision to accelerate the planning process for more land based wind turbines, a policy that the Calderdale Trades Union Council would, generally, support. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3lq3ylzr0o

However, the Calderdale Trades Union Council is convinced that to allow the building of 65 wind turbines on, as would be the case, peat bog would not only be disastrous for the climate and biodiversity but also for many people living in the Calder Valley. This is because of the increased flood risk from inevitable damage to the irreplaceable blanket bog.

Peatlands are the UK’s largest natural carbon land store, and wetlands such as Walshaw Moor blanket bog are among the most biodiverse habitats in the world. They are also the most threatened, and are disappearing three times faster than forests.They are essential for mitigating extreme weather events such as storms and floods, and there are compelling climate change reasons for restoring wetland biodiversity.

The need to preserve peat bog is something I have written about – mainly for the Big Issue North and UNITE Landworker magazine – on many occasions over the years. Damage to Walshaw Moor peat bog has previously been caused by heather burning to support intensive driven grouse shooting. The effect has been to lower the water table, causing peat to dry out, thereby releasing carbon and stored pollutants such as heavy metals. This was identified in a 2015 study of The Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River basins  funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Dewatering and drainage of the blanket bog to enable the wind farm’s construction and operation would cause similar damage to the peat’s hydrology, with a similar increased flood risk in surrounding valleys. Drying out the blanket bog would kill off sphagnum moss and other peat-forming vegetation that slows the flow of rainstorm runoff from the moors and reduces peak flows in the catchment’s rivers. Destruction of the vegetation also threatens endangered birds that depend on these highly protected habitats, that are legally required to be restored to a favourable condition. (2019 Conservation of Habitats and Species (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations.)

In its consultation on proposed planning reforms last autumn, the government itself recognised that there is a case for “additional protections” for “habitats …containing peat soils.” 90% of respondents agreed. So please will you tell both Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, and Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government with responsibility for the proposed planning reforms, that you support the call for a ban on windfarms on protected peatland in England?

Over the past two days, 33 Halifax constituents have signed the Parliamentary petition to ban windfarms on protected peatland. And before Christmas a number of Halifax Constituents signed letters to you about this at a stall in Calder Valley, which will shortly be delivered to your constituency office.

Although your predecessor Holly Lynch never officially recognised that damage to the Walshaw Moor peat bog worsened flooding in the Calder Valley in places such as Mytholmroyd, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden, following a very large number of letters from her constituents she did support significant investment in flood defences, which only recently (only just) prevented widescale flooding in the Calder Valley. These costly flood defences could easily be overwhelmed by any increase in peak flow due to damage to the blanket bog from infrastructure construction.

It is clear that the government is concerned about restoring damaged peat bogs. The Peatland Restoration policy team at DEFRA note that “England’s upland blanket bogs, lowland fens and valley mires are places of striking natural beauty. They are also valuable carbon dioxide stores and home to a rich variety of rare wildlife. When in good condition, these peatlands help fight climate change and provide wider environmental benefits.” Consequently, the Defra Peatland Restoration policy team are working to turn the tide on peatland degradation and drive forward progress on peatland restoration through a collaborative, landscape-scale approach based on peatland partnerships across England’s major peatlands areas.
https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2024/10/08/how-peatland-partnerships-are-transforming-and-restoring-degrading-landscapes-into-healthy-vibrant-peatlands/

Landscape-scale blanket bog restoration on the protected South Pennine Moors Special Protection Area, Special Conservation Area and Site of Special Scientific Interest is a much better way of tackling the twin climate and nature crises than allowing for the building of the largest wind farm in Britain on a peat bog on Walshaw Moor.

We need windfarms but not on protected peat. There is plenty of non-peat land in England for all the wind farms that are needed for the ‘green transition’. Without the ban we’re requesting, windfarms could be built on protected peatland across England – not just on Walshaw Moor above Hebden Bridge, but from Kielder all the way to Exmoor and Dartmoor, as well as other extensive areas of protected peatland across Northumberland, Cumbria, Lancashire, North Yorkshire, the Peak District, Staffordshire Moorlands, with bad consequences for the climate and biodiversity:

• Peat forms over thousands of years and disturbing it releases stored carbon into the atmosphere. It cannot be replaced
• Intact and restored peatland will continue to absorb carbon long after the life span of a windfarm
• The mosses which grow on peat absorb water and create hummocks which help to prevent fast runoff and flash flooding in the valleys.
• Disturbance of peat can also lead to peat slides which can cause structural, chemical and ecological destruction.
• Peatland supports various species of flora, fauna and fungi some of which are endangered – Just like it is impossible to replace peat that has been disturbed, it is impossible to replace these species once they’re gone.

I am therefore writing to ask you to support our call for the government to ban wind farms on protected peatland, and to make public your support. I am aware of a number of your constituents who feel the same. I am more than willing to join any of them in meeting you to express our concerns.

We are also inviting Ed Miliband to come and walk on Walshaw Moor with us to find out what blanket bog is and does, and we would also like to invite you too.