An analysis of community objections to a recent UK onshore wind farm planning application
Mhairi Aitken
Seonaidh McDonald
Peter Strachan
In this presentation:
• Objections discussed in the literature• Introduction to the case• Methods• Preliminary analysis
– Objection themes– Modes of objection– Generic objections
• Conclusions
Objections discussed in the literature
• Visual Impact• Reliability• Suitability• Noise• Cost effectiveness• Environmental impact• Community impact
Drumderg: the site
• Hillside in rural Perthshire, Scotland, UK• Situated between two small towns (largest population
1700)• Local tourist industry
– A93 tourist route to Scottish Highlands– Cateran Trail
• Nearby Dun Moss and Forest of Alyth are SSSI and cSAC• Perth and Kinross Council have never approved a planning
application for a wind farm
Drumderg: the story so far
• Scottish and Southern Energy (major player in the UK energy market) proposed a 16 turbine 32MW wind farm
• Planning permission application attracted an unprecedented number of objections
• Planning officials recommended rejection• Councillors accepted the proposal• Public outcry• SSE given more time to address some of the concerns• Planning officials recommended approval• Councillors rejected the proposal• Public inquiry (closing arguments on Wednesday!)
Methods
• Qualitative study• Analysed all 700 objections to Perth and Kinross Council in
response to the original planning application– Individual letters– Proforma letters– Proforma cards
• Developed a series of codes corresponding to different themes of objection through an inductive and iterative process
• Applied the codes to all objections and analysed using descriptive statistics
• Preliminary results are presented here
Drumderg Objection themes
The wind turbines
Wind power technology
Traffic and roads
Tourism
Ornithology
Impact on individuals or families
Archaeology
Environmental degradation
Comparison of themes across types
The wind turbines
Wind power technology
Traffic and roads
Tourism
Ornithology
Impact onindividuals/familiesArchaeology
Environmental degradation
Planning process
Community fund
Renewables policy
Other Proforma cards
Proforma letters
Letters
Concerns raised in cards and letters
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
The w
ind
turb
ine
s
Win
d p
ow
er
tech
no
log
y
Tra
ffic an
d ro
ads
Tourism
Orn
itholo
gy
Imp
act o
nin
divid
ua
ls/fam
ilies
Arch
aeo
logy
Enviro
nm
enta
ldeg
rada
tion
Pla
nn
ing p
roce
ss
Co
mm
un
ity fund
Re
ne
wa
ble
s policy
Oth
er
Proforma cards
Letters
Traffic and roads
• Damage to the Church wall
• Reduction in parking on specific streets
• Cutting back of mature trees on specific stretch of road
• Traffic speed and volume at a specific junction
• Increased pressure on local accident blackspot
• Traffic jams affecting school bus, emergency services and commuters on specific routes
Tourism• Job losses• Less visitors• Reduced income for local
business
Local and Generic objections
Conclusions
• Proformas signed by individuals are a very successful strategy for influencing local government process; proformas signed by many are not
• For Drumderg the proformas have not added spurious objections but they have changed the relative weight of different concerns
• Analysis reveals some generic objections, but also some which have not been used
• Objections range across the domains of many stakeholders
• Objectors should not be conceptualised as a homogeneous group
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