Chamber and committees

John Edmondson submission of 10 June 2021

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

I have served as Secretary for Ardross Community Council as an elected representative for 20 years. I am not writing on behalf of the community council, but merely recanting my personal experience of the planning system and windfarms.

I am well placed to do this. Ardross, a small community of around 200 households, has 5 wind farms and 82 turbines. I personally have had to deal with 7 wind farm applications in our area over the years ranging from pre-application to Public Local Inquiry [PLI]. At every stage the communities voice has been variously ignored, belittled, and savaged. Yet we are the people who have to live with these decisions. Forever.

The only part of the system that has shown the people who live in these communities the respect they deserve has been the Local Area Planning Committees made up of Council Members. They understand that Planning is about People. They also seem to understand the principle of subsidiarity and local decision making; that decision should be taken at the lowest possible level or at the level closest to the people they affect. They listen to the communities’ voices, certainly our local committee, far more than Local Authority Officials and this is because any objection by a Host Community Council for instance is not treated with the same weight as other statutory consultees: Scottish Environment Protection Agency, NatureScot etc. Which is why a system that gives greater say to local communities to ensure their comments carry the same weight as other statutory consultees needs to be put in place in Scotland. So local people can shape the place they live.

Once in the PLI process individuals and communities are disadvantaged due to lack of technical expertise and proper legal representation. And individuals and community representatives seem to be seen by the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeal Division Reporters as an irritant and amateur as they do not have the resources to make a good representation of their case. And for many it is a daunting formal inflexible process. The current planning legislative framework does not reflect the principles of decisions being made at the lowest possible level nor at the level closest to the people they affect.

Scotland’s record on the Aarhus Convention which Scotland is signed up to is poor. It is in contravention of Pillar 3 according to the UN. And one of the reasons is that its failure to support citizens adequately during the planning process. This petition seeks to redress this. By empowering local authorities to ensure local communities are given sufficient professional help to engage in the planning process etc.

Scotland does not comply with Pillar 2 of the Aarhus Convention or at least the spirit of it as although citizens are able to “participate” in the process, they are disadvantaged by the lack of support, which means that here is not meaningful participation. The Chief Planner states that there is access to Planning Aid Scotland [PAS], but PAS does not sit on a PLI for you or steer you through the process effectively.

So I urge the Scottish Parliament to debate how the local community voice can be heard more effectively by adopting the measures in this petition.