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Corsock & Kirkpatrick Durham Community Council submission of 23 August 2021

PE1864/VVVV: Increase the ability of communities to influence planning decisions for onshore windfarms

Corsock & Kirkpatrick Durham Community Council has been a statutory consultee for numerous windfarm applications/appeals during the last 15 years. As such, we have relevant and direct experience of how the planning process impacts communities, and support the aims of this petition.

We understand the gravity of the Climate Emergency and are aware that there is a need for renewable energy provision. However, our Community Council area already hosts Blackcraig wind farm, which generates enough energy to meet the needs of over 30,000 households when the number of total residents in our community is roughly 500 people. Currently Dumfries and Galloway generates over 10 times more renewable energy than it requires. Therefore, our region is already effectively carbon neutral and we strongly feel that we (as a community and as a region) are already playing our part in mitigating climate change.

Climate change mitigation needs to be tackled holistically, in a way that limits any adverse impacts to community livelihoods, sense of place and wellbeing, as well as limiting the adverse environmental impacts that large industrial infrastructure and significant land use changes will have on wildlife and the environment (land, water bodies and air). Currently we do not feel that Scottish Government policy is taking the needs of rural communities and the environment into full account, and this is why we are requesting changes to the current planning process.

1. As a Community Council, we have fairly and without bias recently consulted our community concerning four current major windfarms applications within 5km of Corsock. This has been very time consuming and costly. 93% of those who responded to our leaflet and questionnaire were against the windfarm applications.

2. From a Community Council perspective, the biggest difficulty we have had is the sheer volume of applications in our area. This takes a huge amount of members’ time if we are to respond and engage with each application, right from the consultation stage, to scoping, application, inquiries, appeals etc. This is always against relatively tight timescales and is often very challenging for us as a group, as members are volunteers, have other commitments and are not experts in the planning process. We have no financial resource to engage experts in supporting us in responding to applications and feel the system is very much weighted in favour of developers.

3. On the few occasions when developments are refused, the Appeals process to ministers is usually successful. We saw this with Blackcraig wind farm; the development was rejected by Dumfries and Galloway Council; and overwhelmingly opposed by local people and Community Councils, only for it to be approved following a public inquiry. The same happened with Mochrum Fell wind farm, which received over 600 objections, including strong objections from five Community Councils. Mochrum Fell wind farm was unanimously refused by the Planning Committee, but allowed on Appeal. We now face the prospect of this development being increased in height, before it is even built.

4. Thanks to Dumfries and Galloway Planning department being overwhelmed with wind farm applications, some of the proposed developments in our area have not been reviewed by Dumfries and Galloway Council within the required time frame set by the developer and by the Scottish planning law. As a result the developers responsible for Fell and Mochrum Fell wind farms have now appealed to the Scottish Government, citing ‘Non determination’ and the planning decisions will now be made by the Scottish Government Reporters, bypassing Dumfries and Galloway’s Planning Committee. Meaning that the decisions made about these developments will be made outwith our region again.

5. This has caused the community to feel very disengaged with the planning process and feel “what is the point” of being involved, when our views continue to be disregarded. Our communities have despaired at planning decisions by Reporters where the impact on us, as residents, is given such little weight. Members of our community feel particularly aggrieved that decisions that have such major impacts on their community, homes, residential amenity, landscape and wildlife are taken by one Reporter on whom the decision will have no impact.

6. In recent years we have been aware of the work undertaken to increase community engagement in the planning process, and local developments plans. However, there is no point whatsoever in creating theoretical “tick box” engagement, when the very valid concerns and views of our communities, us as a Community Council (and indeed other statutory consultees) continue to be disregarded.

There also seems little point in our community being involved in providing input to the Local Development Plans, if the guidance set out in the Local Development Plans is over-ridden by decisions being made outwith Dumfries and Galloway. Unfortunately, over time we have seen members of our communities become less engaged in the planning process, as they feel worn down and disillusioned by a system that is so stacked against them.

We therefore very much support the three key aims of this petition which would go some way towards redressing the balance and restoring the faith of our communities in the Scottish planning process