MONMOUTHSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL planning officers are expected to recommend approval of a scheme to set up a community-owned hydroelectric generator in the Angiddy Valley, near Tintern.

The plan would entail the installation of a stainless steel intake filter at the foot of the Beaufort Pond dam, which would let water into a plastic pipe buried in the ground alongside the Angiddy Brook.

The pipe would run for one kilometre, with a vertical drop of 27 metres. Up to 200 litres of water per second would travel down the pipe and through a turbine generator, and underground cables would feed the resulting electricity into the National Grid. The water would be returned to the Angiddy Brook.