David Ross
Highland Correspondent
THE Scottish Government has been urged to issue national guidance on how
much wind farm developers should pay in community benefit.
The majority of developers deal directly with the communities most
affected, but a study by Robert Gordon University suggests that this means
power is firmly held by the companies, often to the detriment of residents
in terms of the benefits they can secure.
Scottish Renewables recently launched a “protocol” stating that for every
megawatt (MW) of installed capacity, £5000 of community benefit should be
made available to invest in local priorities. The Highland Council set the
figure as a benchmark several years ago.
But the report’s authors believe that local government should play a more
central role via the planning process.
Professor Peter Strachan, of RGU’s Aberdeen Business School, said that
community benefit packages had a curious position within the planning
system, as they could not influence the determination of an application.
He said: “Scotland has witnessed a rapid expansion of onshore wind power
during the past 12 years. Much of this is corporately owned.
“It is clear that after more than ten years of wind power deployment,
Scottish local government lacks robust and nationally coordinated
frameworks for strategically managing community benefits provision.”
Developers should promote a variety of ownership arrangements, he said.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said it was for local authorities to
decide how they wish to see community benefits distributed. But the
Government was committed to maximising the opportunities for community
benefits.
Meanwhile, a new report from Foundation Scotland predicts that the current
annual figure of almost £7 million in community benefit from wind farms is
likely to treble by 2017. But projecting forward to wind farmsplanned and
being scoped, this amount could be closer to £50m by 2020.
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