Chamber and committees

Marion Lang submission of 27 June 2021

PE1864/DDDD - Increase the ability of communities to influence planning decisions for onshore windfarms

I support the aims of this petition.

On 1st March 2006 we received an unsigned letter from a windfarm developer informing us of their plan to erect 13 turbines due south of our house. It was addressed to the occupier although we had owned the property for around thirty years, information readily available through the Electoral Register.

The sense of shock and disbelief I felt still resonates today.

Joining forces with another badly effected party we arranged a meeting to be held in the Ceres Memorial Hall before leafleting all the properties in surrounding countryside and villages that would be impacted by the proposal.

We arranged for a speaker from the Clatto Landscape Protection Group who opposed and defeated the Scottish Power wind farm application for Clatto Hill. He gave the community a graphic description of the difficulties which lay ahead if we chose to oppose the project.

The developer was clearly keen to get the permission underway before the Planning Scotland Act 2006 (introduced 19th December 2005) was passed and, unknown to us, had already attempted to arrange a meeting with Ceres Community Council.

On 21st October 2005 the local paper printed an article about how people power had prevailed in north east Fife when Scottish Power dropped its appeal for Clatto.

There was an added warning that at least three other communities in north-east Fife and Kinross-shire were subject to significant windfarm applications.

One of these was for Auchtermuchty and another for Baldinnie, Ceres. This was the site that appeared on the proposal information sheet for 13 turbines that we received. It had come forward as Gathercauld Windfarm.

This was not quite a new site as the proposed location was further down the hillside from a previous proposal named Bruntshiels which had been vetoed by the Safeguarding division of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) because of interference with the Air Traffic Control for Leuchars where the Tornados were based. The site was still listed as Bruntshiels with the MoD records when we raised the issue of radar interference and the dangers of low-flying through our MP.

A lot of tests were done over the site with various aircraft and in time the MoD accepted a modified design of 5 turbines.

Name changes for the same site was quite common leading to a great deal of confusion for those having to make decisions without necessarily knowing the area they were dealing with.

While these tests were on-going, we were busy on another front. Fife Council were drawing up a new development plan which showed the Areas of Great Landscape Value were set to be replaced by Special Landscape Status and there would be far fewer of them.

The council arranged exhibitions and discussion groups which we took part in urging others to do likewise.

The most reliable tool we had in planning terms was linked to existing and emerging Local Development Plans.

The developer made their application which was turned down by our elected councillors and no appeal was made.

Planning decision making was devolved to Scotland without the necessary safeguards to protect against the sort of exploitation of resources.

Our local councils have been seriously under-resourced to deal with this industry which, I believe, has created problems for both them and the public.

Awarding costs to the developer in November 2006 against Perth and Kinross council for refusing an application on perfectly reasonable grounds naturally sent shock waves out to other local authorities, none of whom could afford to take the risk.

We elect our Councillors to protect the interests of all their electors. Their decisions should be respected and not over-ruled by a reporter appointed by the Scottish Ministers in the way that many decisions have been.

I believe that this history explains why the action called for in the petition is needed.