by David McPhee
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to continue the growth of onshore
wind power – while ruling out a public veto for such projects.
Speaking at the All Energy conference in Glasgow yesterday, Ms Sturgeon
described the Conservative public veto policy in England as “short-sighted”
and said the situation should not be viewed as “developers versus communities”.
But anti-wind farm campaigner Lyndsey Ward said her position was
“unforgivable” and accused the FM of “bulldozing local democracy”.
The first minister was at the conference to launch the Scottish
Government’s energy consumer action plan, which aims to empower consumers
while meeting net zero emissions by 2045. She said: “We must continue to
grow onshore wind and I think our position on that has been vindicated all
along.
“The Tory position that is now influencing the UK Government position is
short-sighted. It’s driven by the wrong considerations and playing to the
concerns about aesthetics of wind farms rather than how we provide clean
affordable energy.
“We believe in the case for onshore wind and we’ll continue to make it.”
Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power, backed Ms Sturgeon’s
stance and said she was “absolutely correct”. He said: “We have all the
technology today and the plans for the zero net target could be started
today. What we can’t do is sit and wait for some new invention.”
Asked about the potential for the introduction of a public veto on onshore
wind projects, Ms Sturgeon said: “I think we’ve got a good record of this
in Scotland in developers actually involving communities so it doesn’t come
down to public veto.
“Our planning system fully involves communities. We’ve got a really good
record in community benefit from onshore wind developments and we shouldn’t
see this as developers versus communities, we should see it as everybody
coming together to do what’s right for the country as a whole.”
But Beauly-based anti-wind campaigner Ms Ward slammed the first minster’s
approach. She said: “Nicola Sturgeon never fails to amaze with her
‘wrongheaded’ approach to rural communities threatened with onshore wind
development.
“She actively encourages 200-metre monstrosities in our world-envied
landscapes and is apparently unable to understand the destructive reality
of what she advocates.”
Graham Lang, of Scotland Against Spin, accused the “urban-based SNP” of
overlooking the impact of the turbines on the remote northern landscape. He
said: “With the carrot of community benefit and the stick of Scottish
Government planning policy there is an inevitable threat of wind farm
mayhem in wrecking Scotland’s finest landscapes, and of course an
urban-based party led by the first minister couldn’t care less.
“Local authorities turn down applications on planning grounds only for them
to be overturned by the Scottish ministers. Most of the good sites with
grid access have been taken, and without a business case developers will
not walk the walk no matter what Nicola Sturgeon says, and the gold rush to
the hills is over.”
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