It comes as no surprise that SSE have lodged an aggressive and condescending appeal against the refusal of planning permission for re-siting their concrete batching plants.
Beneath the facade of their glossy brochures and public relations stunts lurks a ruthless developer who doesn’t take kindly to being refused permission to do as they please.
In their appeal, SSE highlights the fact that the local planning department originally recommended approval of their plans and that should be paramount in the planning process.
However, when the original wind farm planning application was lodged the planning department recommended that Shetland Islands Council object to it.
By the same argument that SSE are currently using the Viking Windfarm should not have been approved in the first place, at least not without a Public Inquiry.
For any planning application in Scotland objectors do not have the same right of appeal that SSE are currently exploiting. It is a sad fact that the current planning process in Scotland is weighted heavily in favour of developers, especially for wind farms.
Efforts by organisations such as Scotland Against Spin and Planning Democracy to address this injustice are to be commended.
Frank Hay
Weisdale
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