Chamber and committees

Tracey Smith submission of 4 June 2021

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

I wish to write in support of this petition.

As a member of a small community who for the last 20 years been targeted by developers, we often feel we are fighting an uneven battle that is stacked against us the people.

The Scottish Government states that it listens to people, but in the case of windfarms our comments seem to fall on deaf ears. We are a small rural community that now has 2 operational wind farms, another with planning approved, 4 others currently in various planning application stages with the Highland Council and we know of at least 2 other developers looking at sites.

If all these applications are granted our community will be surrounded by over 135 wind turbines, although if one of these developers gets a foothold in the area and its infrastructure in place it will no doubt open the floodgates to even more. We will be living in an industrialised area, with the view from local houses looking directly on turbines with hills.

So we try and fight back, but due to Covid regulations presentation of applications in villages are no longer allowed and there is a huge push to go digital in the future. In an area where many have no, or limited, internet provision, how are we expected to download files and files of documents and maps? We have to try and view visuals of the turbines on mobile phones screens. Online comments are limited in the number of words and to get professional advice means communities raising thousands of pounds to pay for their services.

Then consultations are sought from statutory bodies, many of these are now swamped with windfarm applications, some are not even commenting on smaller developments due to time and staffing constraints. With individuals often having 20 – 30 developments to comment on, are they being properly scrutinised and how will this affect the environment and wildlife they are trying to protect?

If after all this a local community manged to submit objections and get the local council (community and elected) to agree to refuse an application, the developers will just appeal. This means yet more costs, and the time and energy of local people that could be better spent for the benefit of their local community. If the developers say the magic words “Climate Emergency” I believe it is likely it will be rubber stamped to go through by the Government.

People are now despondent and apathetic, as many feel there is no point in objecting because the developers will get their way.

Governments plough on with seemingly no strategy on developments and no controls on how many applications can be submitted in an area. Yet we are the ones who have to see our rural life ruined, our tourism businesses wrecked, watch our wildlife, peatland and precious countryside destroyed and put up with the flicker of turbines and warning lights and the dull thud thud thud of them turning on a daily basis.

I believe that developers see windfarms as easy money and have always latched on to whatever is the current buzzword such as cheap electric, to renewal energy to now climate emergency. All these straplines ensure it ticks the boxes to get support from the government.

This deluge of applications does not take into account the lack of infrastructure, and the inability for the grid to cope. This is no worry to developers because the energy is cheap to produce, our tariff to pay for it is the highest in the country so they are assured of huge profits. They are now trying to get local communities to invest in developments to save them money with the prize of rich rewards, and if the grid cannot cope it doesn’t matter as constraint payments will still roll in.

Much is made of community benefit, but in fact it is just a small portion of our energy bills being paid back to us and often the communities most affected by the turbines do not receive any benefit as it is snapped up by nearby local development groups. I can’t help but think how much the £64 million that the Highlands paid in constraint payments last year would have benefitted the community.

Our planning rules need to be reviewed and like in England allow local communities that will be affected by these developments to have the final say on their planning application.