Plans to build a temporary 120-metre-high mast to assess weather conditions at a site near Llandrindod Wells will be decided by Powys councillors.

Nant Mithil Energy Park limited lodged the application for the weather mast with Powys County Council a year ago.

The proposal includes solar panels which would be used to drive the meteorological mast at a site which is around 3.5km away from Llandegley and 4.3km from New Radnor.

The mast would be potentially there for three years.

The application will be presented to Powys councillors at a meeting of the planning committee on Wednesday, February 19 after it was “called in” by county councillor for Old Radnor, Ed Jones,

Cllr Jones (Powys Independents) said: “I’ve had a lot of concern from the residents of my ward, and so I think it’s correct to ask this is brought forward to the planning committee for consideration.”

New Radnor community council has discussed the application and said that councillors object to it on the grounds of “adverse visual impact.”

Nant Mithil Energy Park is the development vehicle for Bute Energy who want to build a wind farm with 31 turbines with a maximum height of 220m at the site.

Planning agent Nia Russell of Turley explained the proposal: “The meteorological mast is a temporary structure for data collection purposes.

“The gathering of this data will play a key role in assessing the area’s wind characteristics for the preparation of a potential future wind turbine development in the area.”

She explains that the mast would need to provide at least one year’s worth of data and would then be dismantled and removed with the site being restored to “its previous use.”

Senior planning officer Catherine James said: “This application relates solely to the meteorological mast and does not include any proposal for a windfarm.

“Should the developers decide to pursue other development, they will need to apply for planning permission at that time, at which point it would be assessed.

“On balance it is considered that the proposal complies with relevant planning policies, and the recommendation is one of conditional consent.”

Due to its size, the energy park would be deemed a Development of National Significane (DNS) and would be processed by planning inspectors at PEDW (Planning and Environment Decisions Wales).

A decision would be made by Welsh Government ministers.

Bute Energy say that the energy park would create 205 megawatts (MW) of electricity which is enough to power between 135,000 and 202,000 homes.