Sarah Edwards MS, Member of the Senedd for Carmarthenshire, has welcomed a High Court judgment which found that the company behind proposed pylon routes through the Towy Valley served a land-access notice that took insufficient account of the land, the people living on it, and the risk of spreading disease between farms.
Judgment was handed down on Monday in a case brought against Green GEN Cymru by the Powys farmer Natalie Barstow, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, and the Land Justice Coalition. Their solicitors act on behalf of more than 500 farmers, landowners, and rural businesses across Wales.
Mr Justice Kimblin found that the notice served on Mrs Barstow in August 2024 was “unduly broad and lacking in particularity”, describing it as a pro-forma document which had regard neither to the circumstances of the land nor to its owners and occupiers. He found evidence that the company had, in some instances, served notices largely regarding its own needs and with insufficient regard to giving proper notice and entering land at reasonable times.
The judge singled out the company’s approach to bovine tuberculosis, describing the failure to grapple with the risks of transmission as the clearest example of a gap in its understanding of the concerns of those whose land it proposed to enter.
Green GEN Cymru is developing the Towy Usk connection, a proposed 132kV overhead line carried on steel pylons running some sixty miles from the Radnor Forest to a new substation at Llandyfaelog, passing Llandovery and Llandeilo. A second line, Towy Teifi, would run south from near Lampeter through Llanllwni and Alltwalis.
Sarah Edwards MS, Member of the Senedd for Carmarthenshire, said:
“For the farming families of the Towy Valley, biosecurity is not a technicality. A bovine TB breakdown can take a herd built over generations and end it in a matter of weeks. When my constituents said that people were crossing their land without proper notice and without regard for disease control, they were told they were being obstructive. This week a High Court judge examined that conduct and found it wanting.
“I want to be careful and accurate about what the court decided, because the people I represent deserve precision rather than slogans. The claim failed on every ground. The judge did not quash the notices, and he found no breach of environmental law. The projects have not been stopped, and I will not pretend otherwise.
“But what has been established matters a great deal. A developer cannot serve as a pro-forma notice and treat a working farm as an address on a list. It must consider the land, the livestock, the season and the people. That is now a matter of record, established by a charity and a community group who had to go to the High Court to secure it.”
Sarah, who lives near Llandovery and who first became involved in politics through the pylon campaign in her hometown, said the judgment offered grounds for confidence to communities still awaiting decisions on the routes.
“The lesson of this judgment is that these communities were right to keep asking questions, and right to insist on being treated properly. It should not have required a High Court case brought by volunteers and a charity to establish that a company must give a farmer proper notice before walking onto their land. That is a matter Parliament should look at, and it is one I intend to pursue.”
Sarah serves on the Senedd’s Economy, Energy and Connectivity Committee, which questions the Cabinet Minister responsible for energy policy. She said she would be raising the adequacy of the statutory land-entry regime in committee, and would continue to work alongside constituents, community groups and the other Members representing Carmarthenshire.
“My commitment to the people of Llandovery, the Towy Valley and the surrounding communities is simple, and it has not changed. I will keep raising this, in committee and in the Chamber, for as long as it takes and for as long as they want me to. This week’s judgment does not end the matter. It does show that persistence works.”