Wind Farm Proposals and SNP Tyranny

Heavens forbid! That wily Scottish Government has overturned a completely legitimate wind-farm denial from god-fearing locally elected council.

Apparently according to the good ole' Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, the Scottish Government is the SNP, but hey ho' let's not nitpick, I blame the Tories for everything when I'm actually referring to the Lib-Con Westminster Coalition under the undemocratic FTP system. It's just that saying that is quite a mouthful.

The article revolves around a few points.

1. Dumfries and Galloway  refused the application for a wind farm. The Scottish Government SNP overturned the application.

2. Moray Council refused the application for a wind farm. The Scottish Government SNP overturned the application.

3.  Aberdeenshire Council and Scottish Natural Heritage voiced concerns about the Moray windfarm, though not what about specifically.

Dumfries and Galloway tried to block a wind farm on the grounds of...well, no grounds, in-fact, apart from the visuals. In-fact the council were incredibly misinformed  that the proposed site was not in an Area of Search for wind turbines. It was, it was not even on the border of an Area of Search, it was smack bang in the middle. Let us note that an Area of Search is an area drawn up within the council's own Wind Energy Policy Guidance.
The councillors then claimed that Wind Turbines caused road safety concerns without evidence to back it up. The Principal Reporter Timothy Brian found the council's behaviour unreasonable enough to incur liability costs.

Moray's final report is a lot more detailed and deals with visual, landscape, natural heritage and trunk road concerns, of which there are 18 pages of glorious bullet-points. It should be worth noting this quote from the Conservative website:

Moray Council refused the application for the windfarm in Keith, while nearby Aberdeenshire Council and Scottish Natural Heritage also voiced concerns about the development.

Is something I'd like to deal with, here is the actual concern the quote fails to go into:

I note the reservations of SNH and Aberdeenshire Council about aspects of the
methodology used for the landscape and visual impact assessment which formed part of
the Environmental Statement (ES). However, I am satisfied that the assessment conforms
with established best practice outlined in the Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact
Assessment, and that the updated cumulative assessment, together with the residential
amenity survey, address any gaps in the original assessment.

Ah, so when we say reservations, we are actually failing to say exactly what, are we? As it turns out SNH were worried about aspects of the methodology used for the assessment. The conservative website seems to fail to mention all the plethora of evidence that shows that Scottish Natural Heritage is quite happy with other aspects of the Wind Farm:

The appeal site is not subject to any special natural heritage
designations.

SNH’s broad overview of where there is likely to be greatest scope for windfarm 

development, and where there are the most significant constraints, in natural heritage
terms. The appeal site lies within Zone 1, which “identifies areas at the broad scale with
least sensitivity to windfarms, with the greatest opportunity for development, within which
overall a large number of developments could be acceptable in natural heritage terms, so
long as they are undertaken sensitively and with due regard to cumulative impact.”

There are no objections to the proposal on nature conservation or historic
environment grounds. SNH raised no objection to the proposal, which would not affect any
site designated for its ecological or nature conservation interest.

I recommend reading the report yourself if you've got the time, it makes for an interesting read into all the considerations put into windfarm placement and development, and deals with Aberdeenshire Council's concerns some more. 

But what should become abundantly clear is the fact that local democracy is not being destroyed, it is not the SNP taking away the will of the people (why would they overthrow the will of one of their own minority councils?) These are sites for wind farms, all of them were in proposed areas for wind farm development. When a reporter goes in and says a council is unjustified, or even wrong, perhaps you should point your finger at the actual one in trouble.