I wish to draw attention to the error in last week’s Barrhead News article
‘Windfarm claims kick up a storm in village’.
The information contained in this article was incorrectly copied from my
letter which was published in the same edition of the paper.
I was quoted as saying ‘the partnership agreement between the developers
was drafted with the specific intention that this would displace any
community benefit which might otherwise have been offered locally, and that
therefore there is no scope to consider additional benefits for Uplawmoor
. This has clearly been a very difficult and sensitive process with
lessons to be learned for all of us – in terms of engagement, dialogue and
transparenccy. We will certainly reflect on those from our perspective’.
This was in fact an excerpt from a letter sent to Uplawmoor residents from
a Senior Scottish Government Official who negotiated (unsuccessfully)
alongside Jackson Carlaw MSP with the developers of Neilston Community
Windfarm, in an attempt to secure some compensation for the Uplawmoor
community for the greater than predicted impact of the windfarm .
I am happy to accept the Editor’s apology for the error, however what I am
not happy to accept is the statement issued by the spokesperson for East
Renfrewshire Council, who is quoted in the same article as saying ‘We
followed all the proper procedures’.
ERC has a statutory duty to consult with Community Councils on community
planning matters and local planning and licensing matters. Neilston
Community Council was consulted by ERC in November 2009, as soon as the
application for the windfarm was submitted. Uplawmoor Community Council
was not consulted by ERC until August 2010, (despite the fact the
application site was within their jurisdiction) and only then because
residents had just discovered the application for themselves and queried
the lack of consultation with the Planning Department.
As the land neighbouring the application site consists of open fields with
no properties within 20m, ERC would not have notified neighbours directly
(as they stated) but would have advertised the proposal in the Barrhead
News (which is not widely read in Uplawmoor).
That in itself is largely immaterial as the site address was advertised as
‘Land 1 km NW of Nether Carswell Farm, Neilston’, misleading any Uplawmoor
resident who may have noticed the advertisement into believing it was
nowhere near our village and therefore none of our concern.
As a direct result of this lack of consultation, I submitted a petition
calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to
consider a change in planning regulations to enable an increase in the
current neighbour notification distance of 20 metres in relation to wind
turbine planning applications. It was unanimously supported by the
Committee and Good Practice Guidance is scheduled to be published in the
Spring of 2015.
Uplawmoor was not properly consulted by ERC or the Developers and it is
apparent from the responses from the Scottish Government that it is an
embarrassment which they hope will never be repeated.
Aileen Jackson
Knockglass
Uplawmoor
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