| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Scottish MPs back wind planning fee rise
Credit: John McKenna, Windpower Monthly, 23 November 2012, 10:30am | www.windpowermonthly.com ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
A leading group of Scottish MPs today backed a proposed increase in planning fees for larger wind farms.
The Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee said the rise would help local planning authorities struggling to keep up with the number of onshore wind applications being made by investing in more staff and resources to deal with the influx.
However, the Committee also recommends that planning authorities be required to become more efficient in return for higher fees.
“The Committee is supportive of fee increases for larger-scale planning applications where these will not disadvantage community developers,” says the Committee’s report of its inquiry into Scotland’s ability to hit its target of generating 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2020.
“The Committee recommends that the Scottish Government considers whether, in return for higher fees, planning authorities could address duplication of effort for developers and improve efficiency, for example by taking on tasks such as gathering information on cumulative visual impact from their own records, rather than each developer having to undertake this task separately.”
The fee rise recommendation follows the Scottish Government’s unveiling of a £300,000 fund in September to support planning authorities processing wind applications. In its report, the Committee rejected calls by some planning authorities to impose a moratorium on wind farm planning applications until the current backlog was dealt with.
Overall, the Committee’s report was confident Scotland could hit its 2020 target of 100% renewables, notwithstanding the challenges within the planning system and the ability of developers to gain access to project finance.
The Committee also used the report to criticise the UK government for “breeding uncertainty” by allowing a further review of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) in 2014 after agreeing revised rates in July.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Funding |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=30326 ]
