Oliver Mundell MSP tabled the following question to Holyrood (it relates directly to part three of our Petition to the Scottish Parliament: Appointing an independent advocate to ensure that local participants are not bullied and intimidated during public inquiries) https://www.parliament.scot/…/pe1864-increase-the…
1 Scottish Parliament, Written Answer
13 January 2022
Index Heading: Economy
Oliver Mundell (Dumfriesshire) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party):
“To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to helping communities which oppose wind farm developments to (a) access and (b) fund legal representation during the planning process.”
S6W-05214 Tom Arthur:
“The Scottish Government provides the policy and legislative framework for community engagement in the Scottish planning system. Whilst not providing an advocacy service for communities, the Scottish Government provides financial assistance to PAS (Planning Aid for Scotland), an independent charity, to provide a free advice service on planning and environmental matters for communities and the public at large, through its professional planner volunteers.”
Anyone who has approached PAS will know that they are very helpful, but being staffed by volunteers, do not have the resources to help scrutinise the vast number and thousands of pages of complex documents within a wind farm application and they do not have an advocacy role.
PAS was asked by the Petitions Committee to make a submission to our Petition. We are grateful that they did as it gave us a chance to respond. Both their submission and our response to the points they raised can be found on our website https://scotlandagainstspin.org/…/petition-news…/
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