SOUTH Cambridgeshire MP Andrew Lansley has welcomed Government policy changes which will give communities more of a say about plans for wind farms.

The changes will mean residents have to be consulted before a planning application is made, while reissued planning guidance stresses that “the need for renewable energy does not automatically override environmental protections and the planning concerns of local communities”.

Several wind farms have been proposed for South Cambridgeshire in recent years, including sites at Litlington and Heydon.

Mr Lansley said: “Local people and their councils should not feel bullied into accepting proposals they do not want.

“This is of course particularly relevant to us in South Cambridgeshire, where there have been a number of wind farm applications that were clearly inappropriate and which, quite rightly, the district council did not approve or which many of us felt were inappropriate in terms of the impact to the landscape.

“These new planning guidelines make very clear that the concerns of communities must be heard and cannot be overridden in the way they sometimes have been in the past.”