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

An analysis of community objections to a recent UK onshore wind farm planning application

Mhairi Aitken

Seonaidh McDonald

Peter Strachan