Chamber and committees

Chris Walsh submission of 13 June 2021

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

I write in support of the above petition.

In my opinion there is a lack of substantial engagement with communities that are directly affected by onshore wind farms.

Local knowledge, by people who live and work in the areas directly impacted by onshore wind, is not given the correct weight when planning decisions are made. Years of experience living and working in the landscape cannot be replicated by developer desktop studies and infrequent site walk overs yet in my experience little weight is given to this local knowledge and it is often overridden.

The financial cost to local individuals and communities to put forward their view at public enquiry is prohibitive. Due to the lack of weight given to local knowledge and the legal nature of public enquiries, the costs of engaging a professional team are high. Additionally, I have direct experience of trying to engage a hydrologist to ensure my private water supply is adequately protected from an onshore wind development yet I could not find one who was willing to undertake the work as they all work for onshore wind developers and did not want to compromise future work with them. This makes it a very uneven playing field.

Additionally, there is no let-up in onshore wind developers submitting planning applications for the same area. This often results in the local community having to fund numerous enquiries. In the last 6 years my local community has had to respond to 3 wind farm applications, 2 of which are for the same site and run concurrently. That is an enormous financial burden for local communities to take and one which they feel they must undertake yet the money could be used elsewhere.

A more level playing field is required by giving local communities the power of veto over a development. If developers properly engage and listen to communities, and take action where necessary, there is every chance they will take the local community along with them, gain planning permission and deliver a better scheme. The current system allows developers to ignore local knowledge, as they ultimately know the planning decision will not be taken at a local level. This creates community mistrust and has the potential to lead to bad planning decisions and poorly considered schemes when built out.