The Scottish Government needs to give local authorities official guidance on community benefits offered by wind power developers, according to a report by Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University.
In his survey, Professor Peter Strachan reviewed the extent of formal policy guidance to all 32 councils in Scotland and found that, despite more than 10 years experience in dealing with wind power applications, “Scottish local government lacks robust and nationally co-ordinated frameworks for strategically managing community benefits provision”.
He concluded this was because of the controversial nature of wind power applications; resource constraints such as time, staff and budget; with local authorities also worried about accusations of a corrupt planning system.
The leader of Aberdeenshire Council, Jim Gifford has said some developers offer a “bribe” disguised as community benefits and there was a lack of legal safeguards for the associated communities.
He said: “Some developers are saying that if locals support an application then there will be benefits via a community benefit fund. In any language that’s not a contribution, that’s a bribe.
“Most of these agreements are not contracts and are just voluntary so, if the turbine changes hands, which they do regularly, then that could be lost. It should be statutory that for every turbine there will be a community benefit fund made payable to the adjacent community council or community association but the Scottish Government have to do that, we can’t.”
He also suggested that government input should go further than addressing the arrangements for community benefit funds.
He said: “Some areas are saturated with turbines and can’t have any more, that’s where we need the advice we’ve been asking for for years on cumulative impact because currently it’s subjective. There must be some scientific way of assessing landscape impact but so far nothing has come forward.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said the distribution of community benefits was a policy matter for local authorities but the government was committed to maximising the opportunities for these benefits. She said: “We are currently consulting on the proposed Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Developments. This guidance recommends a baseline community benefits package of at least £5,000 per MW.
“It also encourages developers to consider the scope for communities to invest directly in commercial schemes and ways to achieve the most effective spend.”
The consultation is open until January 17.”
In addition to national guidance, Prof Strachan also recommended the Scottish Government promote a variety of ownership arrangements with community benefits being integrated into planning and that more creative community benefits should be offered by developers.
