Council to consider 'largest renewables project in Highland history' as concerns rise over planning
Councillors have warned about disparities in community funding, shorter consultation periods and a lack of site visits.
Calls have been made to ease the “unsustainable pressure” on planning officials as a council prepares to consider the biggest renewables development in Highland history.
Councillors from opposite ends of the region — the biggest local authority area in the UK — have issued a joint statement on the Highland Council’s handling of energy development applications coming in at an “unprecedented scale”.
Energy bosses claim Scotland needs to double the onshore wind farm capacity in the next five years alone to help reach renewable energy targets, with the Highlands considered a hot-spot area for such developments.
The rush has led to conflict between residents, developers and planning officials. Two community council conventions took place in the Highlands over the summer, with one in the north east and a fourth planned for the Borders.
The calls for change come as officials are preparing to consider the Banniskirk Hub in Caithness — a substation site the size of 140 football pitches — and which is said to be the biggest energy-related application for the region yet.
The plans are being discussed at the next north Highland meeting alongside a 300 megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS) and two offshore windfarm cable routes. The controversial Spittal to Beauly overhead powerline, which is yet to be decided on by Scottish ministers, is also on the agenda for the meeting.
Authors of the statement, Scottish Conservative Cllr Helen Crawford, who represents Aird and Loch Ness, and Matthew Reiss, Independent Cllr for Thurso and Northwest Caithness, said the upcoming meeting was an example of the strain given the “exceptionally long agenda”. They said the agenda could require some members of the planning committee to make a 220-mile round trip twice in three days.
Remote attendance, the councillors said, was often unreliable and no substitute for being physically present.
The pair claimed a similar picture is emerging for projects with the south planning committee, which is due to consider the proposed Fanellan substation - an 868-acre red-line site with nearly 2,000 objections.
The councillors pointed to wide disparities in community benefit payments from energy developments.
There is also concern over a lack of site visits during the current administration, despite the rush of new developments, and shortened consultation periods.
The councillors also warned public trust had eroded across the Highlands because of how energy projects had been handled.
Their statement read: “These are not minor matters. Councillors, lay people tasked with decisions shaping future generations, need time, clarity and site visits. Instead, there is concern that agendas are overloaded and processes rushed.
“Public trust from Caithness to Lochaber, and Skye to Badenoch, is ebbing as people see contradictions and fear the Highlands is being exploited while governments look away. The Scottish Government has intervened before, such as stopping new nuclear, and it holds full responsibility for planning legislation, yet rarely refuses major applications.
“Communities are rightly asking whether it will now act or continue to facilitate what increasingly looks like an unjust and unnecessary industrialisation
“We stand together - north and south - calling for urgent, practical and transparent improvements to the planning process before decisions of national and generational importance are pushed through without proper scrutiny.”
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