Brighton and Hove has emerged with credit from a row about councils holding up applications for wind turbines.
Campaigners and renewable energy companies had complained that councils were dragging their feet as the number of planning applications for small-scale wind turbines mounted.
The issue was even raised at Prime Minister’s questions in the House of Commons.
David Hunt, a director of Eco Environments, which sells and installs wind turbines and solar panels, said: “We have a number of customers whose applications for small-scale wind turbines are stuck in planning.
“And we know of hundreds more across the UK in a similar position.”
But Brighton and Hove City Council said that it had given planning permission for 15 wind turbine schemes since 2005. Only one such application has been received but not yet decided.
The council even gave itself planning permission to put up a wind turbine at its King’s House offices in Grand Avenue, Hove.
In the end the turbine was not put in place.
But the council is aiming to fit solar panels to dozens of public buildings by next April.
