Onshore wind projects are facing significant delays because of a constitutional quirk that means Scotland is the only part of the UK where abnormal loads need to be escorted by specialist road traffic police officers.
In England and Wales, the UK Government’s National Highways agency performs the role.
For that to happen north of the border, there would need to be an amendment to the Road [Traffic] Regulation Act 1984.
In practice, escorting these loads, including wind turbine blades, which can only travel at around three miles an hour and can take up to six hours to move on a single job, is treated as secondary, overtime work for Police Scotland. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26428335.scotlands-wind-rollout-slowed-police-escort-bottleneck/?fbclid=IwY2xjawTamulwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR4Wbal0hjuf0OUhkztLnNxY1Wp08MmnZqZt9vw3sRhyyb2zwVwAtkUsuIyynQ_aem_ohWtbOGOs8o0KGTxK8RgHg
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