An amendment was made to the Town and Country Planning Order 2013, which came into force 17th December 2013. This makes pre-application consultation with the local community a legal requirement for planning applications regarding wind turbine developments, in England. Fine Energy accepted this new procedure with great gusto and we have been consulting with local communities for the past ten months. We did not limit consultation to England, choosing to engage with Welsh communities and, more recently, Scottish communities.
Not a moment too soon it seems. In response to a public petition, the Scottish Government has agreed to prepare guidance on good practice community engagement methods for wind energy development proposals. The current publicity requirements for raising awareness of planning applications is deemed to be insufficient and the Scottish Government acknowledged that it would be helpful to issue guidance. The focus of the petition was on single structures, or a small number of turbines, which are situated onshore in rural areas, as opposed to larger offshore wind farms.
The government is asking stakeholders to comment on the content of the guidance before it is finalised in Spring 2015. The guidance aims to advise local planning authorities, developers and members of the public.
We have had a tremendous response to our consultations and it has given us an opportunity to answer questions, dispel rumours and genuinely engage with local residents. We look forward to reviewing the Scottish guidance in 2015.