Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of adopting the recommendations of the report of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Committee for the Environment of 2015 on wind energy to replace ETSU-R-97 with a method of measuring loudness that brings wind turbine noise controls in line with other industrial controls.

The Northern Ireland Assembly Environment committee made their recommendation to revise wind turbine noise guidelines with a view to considering the noise impact on nearby resident's day to day lives. This issue has been addressed through the written statement covering wind farm applications, made by my Rt Hon Friend Greg Clark MP, the previous Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on 18 June 2015, Official Report, column 9WS: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2015-06-18/HCWS42/

Only if the applicant is able to demonstrate that the planning impacts identified by the affected local community have been fully addressed, including noise, can the planning authority grant permission.