Agenda for Community Meeting with Maree Todd, MSP
19:00 — 20:30, Friday 9 May 2025
Ardgay Public Hall
Background
Issues were raised in the community meeting held with Maree Todd MSP on 13 February 2025, in Bonar Bridge Community Hall. These issues are itemised below. In this meeting, Ms. Todd said she would address these various issues and would report back to the community with further information. Ms. Todd has provided documentation in order to help provide answers to the various question posed on these issues. Each of these documents she has provided has been numbered. If there is a document relevant to an issue raised, the reader should refer to the document number shown. [You may click on the individual button below to go to each document or you can access them as a combined pdf file on the last button].
Ms. Todd said she would:
1. Meeting with Alasdair Allan and Gillian Martin
Facilitate a meeting between representatives of the community and campaigners with both the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero & Energy, Gillian Martin, and the Minister for Climate Action, Alasdair Allan, at Holyrood.
Supporting document has been received (see Document 6).
2. Cumulative Impact
Provide a clearer definition of how cumulative impact is interpreted in law.
Supporting document has been received (see Document 6).
3. Standing Charges
Lobby for a change to standing charges in this area.
Supporting document has been received (see Document 1).
4. The Scottish Fire & Rescue Service as Statutory Consultees
Pursue a change to be made to primary legislation concerning The Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, which should be made a statutory consultee for any renewable energy application which includes a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) development.
Supporting document has been received (see Document 8).
5. NatureScot and SEPA
Look into the thinly-stretched staffing of NatureScot and SEPA.
Supporting document has been received (see Documents 2 and 3).
6. Percentages of objections in relation to local population
Pursue the issue of percentages of objections in relation to local population numbers being taken into account when applications are being considered.
Supporting document has been received (see Document 5).
7. Compulsory Purchase Orders
Provide more information on Compulsory Purchase Orders.
Supporting document has been received (see document 4).
8. Cost comparison between underground and overhead cables
Obtain a cost comparison between underground and overhead cables concerning the proposed Spittal to Beauly pylon route.
Supporting document has been received (see Document 3).
9. NPF4 policies to be adhered to
Lobby for the published NPF4 policies to be adhered to. (Some most obvious examples of non-adherence are those cited in the Reporters’ Report on the Strath Oykel application, which was presented to Scottish Ministers, and can be accessed here: https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationDetails.aspx?cr=ECU00003246&T=6 ).
Supporting document has been received (see Documents 5 and 6).
10. Constraint payments
Help to facilitate change in the area of constraint payments currently being made where renewable energy projects in Scotland are concerned.
Supporting document has been received (see Documents 3 and 7).
11. Renewable energy development map
Help facilitate one map of Scotland showing all turbines, pylon lines or substations and renewable energy projects, whether built, approved, in planning, in scoping, or under or over 50MW.
Supporting document has been received (see Document 3).
12. Omissions from Environmental Impact Assessment Reports
Investigate the omission of topics from developers’ Environmental Impact Assessment Reports such as Major Accidents and Disasters. These are especially important where BESS are proposed for a development.
13. Gillian Martin’s absence from a key meeting
Investigate Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy Gillian Martin’s absence from a debate in Holyrood ‘Ensuring communities are at the heart of the consenting process’ on 22 January 2025, as she was in Berlin meeting wind farm developers RWE.
14. Mental Health
Consider taking action on the issue of mental health. This was brought up in the context of The Scottish Human Rights Commission's recent report on the Highlands and Islands, in which it recommends the Scottish Government 'listens to local communities in adopting a human rights approach’. There are significant mental health problems faced by many in the community as they grapple with the relentless flow of wind farm applications, appeals and reapplications.
15. Accountability for loss of value of property and business
Report on the issue of accountability for loss of value to a property or business as a result of renewable energy developments, and for the loss of life and environmental damage which might come about as a result of a thermal runaway.
Other questions were put forward but could not be asked during the evening due to time constraints; these questions were sent to Ms. Todd following the meeting in February:
16. Community Benefits
The level of community benefit was established more than ten years ago and was set to be indexed linked but there has never been any increase. Will Scottish Government make community benefit compulsory in future, ensure that it is set at a fair rate for those communities most affected by renewable energy, ensure that battery energy storage is rightly included in generated power calculations, and put in place an appropriate administrative framework for the management and distribution of community benefit funds, which is separate and divorced from energy companies?
Supporting document has been received (see Documents 1 and 3).
17. Free electricity
Some feel community benefit should include free electricity alongside any community benefit fund. They should not become centralised, but valuable to each community local to specific developments. Is this something you would be able to engage with?
Supporting document has been received (see Document 1).
18. Maximum limit to number of developments in one area
Why is there no maximum limit to the number of developments that can be lodged in a particular area?
19. Use of brownfield sites for BESS developments
The recent announcement to situate 'Europe's largest battery storage project' in Coalburn, South Lanarkshire, is a welcome move to make better use of brownfield sites. Why is the Scottish Government not making better use of this type of land rather than covering some of our most scenic areas with wind turbines and battery storage units?
20. Support for local councils in bearing increased costs of renewable energy development applications
Local authorities, such as Highland Council, face a disproportionate cost in dealing with public inquiries in relation to renewable energy developments. Should councils in this position be receiving extra public funding to ensure these applications receive proper public scrutiny?
21. Total number of Public Inquiries
What is the total number of Public Inquiry decisions, where planning Reporters have recommended that an application should be rejected, that have been overturned by Scottish Ministers?
22. The use of experts
Experts are being employed by windfarms so that the most qualified of individuals are not available to the Highland Council. What can be done to stem the flow of talented people to this area of the private sector?
23. Detailed description of employment
Exactly what employment do you consider a windfarm provides a local community, both in the short term and the long term?
24. Change of use of public land without public consultation
Forestry Land Scotland has not consulted with the public on the change of use of public land (with reference in particular to the proposed Inveroykel Wind Farm). Is it appropriate that a government agency is misusing the planning process as a means to raise money?