Been expecting this!
A company set up by the Duke of Buccleuch’s estate is taking Scottish ministers to court in a bid to overturn their rejection of a wind farm planned for south west Scotland.
The North Lowther Energy Initiative (NLEI) has petitioned the Court of Session arguing that the Scottish Government’s refusal to grant planning permission for 30 wind turbines on the Lowther Hills, between Sanquhar and Wanlockhead in Dumfries and Galloway, was legally flawed.
Local community leaders have reacted angrily, as they believed they had succeeded in stopping the development after a public inquiry in 2019. They argued that the turbines would “decimate” the landscape and Buccleuch’s business would profit by many millions of pounds.
Buccleuch declined to confirm how much the estate would earn, but pointed out that local communities could be eligible for up to £735,000 a year. NLEI’s parent company said it had a “well-established right” to challenge planning decisions in court.
The 10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke of Queensberry is Richard Scott, who, along with his family, is Britain’s largest private landowner. One of his estates, Queensberry, includes the Lowther Hills and covers over 33,500 hectares.
The Ferret first reported Buccleuch’s plans for a large wind farm in the Lowther Hills in June 2015, including attempts to lobby the then energy minister, Fergus Ewing. In partnership with a renewable energy firm, Buccleuch established NLEI in July 2015.
In May 2019 Buccleuch sold its 50 per cent stake in NLEI, which is now controlled by a German renewable energy company called BayWa r.e. But the estate still maintains an interest as it would receive rental payments from the company for turbines erected on its land.
Buccleuch’s initial plan in 2015 was to build 140 wind turbines to produce 400 megawatts of electricity, which would have been one of Scotland’s biggest wind farms. That was cut back to a planning application from NLEI in June 2017 for 35 turbines up to 149 metres high, across 3,500 hectares of the Queensberry Estate.
But NLEI’s plans prompted widespread opposition, and ended up being considered at a public inquiry in October 2019. By then it had further reduced the number of proposed turbines to 30 to generate 147 megawatts of electricity.
On 8 January 2021 Scottish ministers refused planning permission for the development, following a recommendation from the inquiry reporter. The wind farm “would give rise to unacceptable significant adverse landscape and visual impacts as well as adversely impact on the historic setting of Wanlockhead,” they concluded.
Now The Ferret has learnt that NLEI has lodged a petition at the Court of Session in Edinburgh requesting a judicial review of the government’s decision. In advance of any court hearing, both NLEI and the government declined to give any further details.
Case details, including decision notice can be found here https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=120059
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