As another busy year draws to a close, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our members, old and new, for their continued support and their many and varied contributions to our FB Group, Twitter and the Website. The amount of information which is shared and responded to with lightning speed is astounding and a credit to you all.
One of our most important tasks this year was the submission of our second Petition to the Scottish Parliament – PE1864: Increase the ability of communities to influence planning decisions for onshore windfarms https://www.parliament.scot/get-involved/petitions/view-petitions/pe1864-increase-the-ability-of-communities-to-influence-planning-decisions-for-onshore-windfarms
Due to the Scottish Parliament election, closely followed by Summer recess, it was not presented to the Petitions Committee until September but it was worth the wait and was unanimously supported by MSPs. We expect to be called to give further evidence early in the New Year.
We continue to raise awareness of everything that is wrong with wind energy through letters to the press (45 this year of which 34 were published) and we were fortunate to have a number of articles published in a variety of national and local newspapers, Energy Voice and the Conservative Woman. We also gave interviews on West FM and American news outlet NBC news.
Meetings, Conferences, Workshops and Inquiries are still taking place remotely and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future; easier for some, more difficult for those with slow broadband. We were immensely proud of one of our team members who gave up months of her time to prepare for and appear at Arecleoch WF Extension Inquiry in order to give evidence in relation to potential impacts on Private Water Supplies.
Our assessment of the facts and biased statistics behind the polls supposedly supporting the repeated industry and political statements that 70% of the public support onshore wind, including those within 5 miles of a windfarm, was well received and published in the Conservative Woman and a number of newspapers. https://scotlandagainstspin.org/2021/07/the-truth-behind-the-polls-that-show-support-for-windfarms-the-conservative-woman/
Two of our team members attended the International Wind Farm Noise Conference to give a talk on “Living beside wind turbines”. This covered noise (volume, character) day and night time flicker, coping with developers, planners, environment health officers and the breakdown of relationships within the community.
Our correspondence with Ministers, MSPs and MPs is ongoing. We also submitted numerous FOI requests for information from the Scottish Government as well as liaising with Heads of Planning Scotland (HoPS) concerning the need for greater uniformity amongst Planning Authorities which would make the system fairer for everyone in Scotland and encourage greater participation in the planning process.
As always, we continue to help other groups and individuals when requested.
Team members also managed to find the time to compose a number of informative articles:
Notes on the Importance of Appeal Pre-Examination
Wind Farm capacity targets
Precognitions: Some tips for anyone who hasn’t written one before
Advice and a Warning – Wind farm Appeals and Hearings
(All of the above can be found in the resources Section on our Website).
As a member of the DPEA Stakeholders’ Forum, SAS campaigned for Guidance On Taking Part In Planning Appeals and Other Cases and this was published by DPEA with input from other Stakeholders and SAS members in February 2021 https://scotlandagainstspin.org/2021/02/guidance-on-taking-part-in-planning-appeals-and-other-cases/
We also successfully campaigned for the provision of free CDs containing Environmental Impact Assessments (due to the difficulties of downloading large documents encountered by people in remote areas with inadequate broadband.)
DPEA is now kindly considering our request to provide free CDs of Inquiry proceedings to those with broadband problems. This will ensure no-one is disadvantaged when writing closing statements. They have also agreed to our request to reorganise case documents on their website to make them easier to locate and very kindly offered to organise a tutorial for members of the public to aid their understanding and manipulation of the website.
We raised the issue of New Technology e.g. Green Hydrogen factories and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in particular, being tacked onto to recent windfarm applications with no consideration of disaster management and public and environmental safety. This will be followed up in the New Year.
Due to the retirement of the Caithness Wind farm Information Forum (CWIF) Webmaster after many years in the post, we were asked to host their Wind Farm Accident Statistics on the SAS website. We were honoured to do so. It is possibly the most complete set of wind farm related accident statistics anywhere in the world outside of those held secretly by wind industry bodies. We wish CWIF all the best for a long and happy retirement and heartfelt thanks for all their help and hard work over the last 14 years. https://scotlandagainstspin.org/turbine-accident-statistics/
Finally, I’d like to thank a number of people who don’t wish to be in the limelight but without whose hard work and dedication, we couldn’t provide information to so many people and those thanks extend to our Experts who give professional advice and guidance on a number of matters and keep us out of trouble!
We will continue to keep up the good fight as we move into 2022 but we need your help. If possible, please respond to the Consultation on Scotland’s draft Onshore Wind Policy Statement, by the deadline, 21 January 2022 https://scotlandagainstspin.org/2021/10/onshore-wind-policy-statement-consultation/
and the Consultation on the draft National Planning Framework 4 by 31 March https://scotlandagainstspin.org/2021/11/consultation-on-a-draft-national-planning-framework-4/
Stay strong, stay safe and keep a sense of humour!
All the best for 2022
Graham, Marion, Aileen, Willie, Rachel and Tim
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