By Michael Alexander

A campaign group has accused Fife Council of a “systematic and deliberate
attempt” to withhold information about two windfarm planning applications.

The Clatto Landscape Protection Group (CLPG) submitted a Freedom of
Information request to Fife Council in May 2012 to see the initial planning
assessments of two windfarm proposals for Clatto Hill.

The Scottish Government’s Information Commissioner instructed the council
that it was in the wider interest to make the information public.

However, the council’s planning officers refused to comply. They started an
appeal to the Court of Session, but last month abandoned this appeal.

Following a renewed instruction to issue the two reports, the council sent
out a report to CLPG, which the group says was obviously not the report
requested.

CLPG believes this is part of a systematic and deliberate attempt to block
making these reports available to the public.

Subsequent reports which went before councillors recommended approval of
the two schemes for a total of 10 wind turbines over 100 metres tall.

However, councillors in three committees overwhelming rejected the
proposals. Both developers appealed and a Scottish Government Reporter
dismissed the appeals earlier this year. The turbines cannot now be built.

CLPG chairman Greg Brown said: “We had the bizarre situation that
councillors, the local community, the case officer and then the Scottish
Government Reporter all agreed the schemes were unsuitable. But planning
bosses thought they should be approved.

“The reports to councillors were altered from refusal to approval and made
strange reading as there were obvious inconsistencies throughout these
reports.”

CLPG secretary Stavros Michaelides added: “Although the local community
around Clatto Hill are no longer threatened by these particular proposals,
all over Fife we continue to see assessments from planning officials which
more or less ignore the visual impacts on the people who would live closest
to the turbines if they were built.”

Mr Michaelides had been asked by the Information Commissioner to supply a
copy of what the council officials have actually sent to CLPG.

He added: “In our group’s view it is totally unacceptable for the council
planning bosses to behave in this way, continuously refusing to provide the
requested information. It appears that only the threat of legal action
forced the council to comply.”

CLPG say they now want to understand how a report recommending refusal can
be subsequently turned around to recommend approval.

Mr Brown said: “Secondly, the council must commit to a policy of full
transparency in the future.

“Finally, we want to get to the bottom of why there is a continuing problem
trying to get both applicants and planning case officers to present proper
assessments of wind turbine planning applications in Fife which take full
account of the visual impact on people living in the neighbourhood of
turbine proposals.”

Jim Birrell, senior manager of development and buildings at Fife Council,
said: “All reports submitted for committee consideration contain a full
assessment of the relevant material planning considerations, including
landscape, visual and amenity factors.

“Fife Council does publish all relevant information and is currently
looking at improvements to the way information on windfarm proposals is
presented by applicants, including photomontages, and how Fife Council
committee reports present this material, particularly in relation to
impacts on individual properties.”


SAS Volunteer

We publish content from 3rd party sources for educational purposes. We operate as a not-for-profit and do not make any revenue from the website. If you have content published on this site that you feel infringes your copyright please contact: webmaster@scotlandagainstspin.org to have the appropriate credit provided or the offending article removed.

4 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *