23 Jun 2026
Environmental Campaigners in the Scottish Borders are celebrating after a plan for an eight-turbine windfarm near the villages of Oxton and Lauder has been blocked.
Permission for the Ditcher Law windfarm was granted to Irish renewable energy firm E Power by the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU) in February, despite an objection from Scottish Borders Council (SBC), and in May SBC sought a judicial review of the decision because E Power had not taken the necessary grid connection into account.
Now the Scottish Government has decided not to contest the judicial review, effectively quashing the planning consent so the project cannot go ahead.
In a Facebook post, SBC independent councillor David Parker said: “This is an excellent outcome for local campaigners and a wake-up call to the Scottish Government that they need to carefully consider renewable energy consents and other major energy applications.”
The victory follows February’s landmark Court of Session decision to block permission for the Wull Muir windfarm proposal near Heriot, which judges ruled was illegal because the infrastructure needed to connect the turbines to the grid had not been included in the application.
Carfrae resident Ian Foulkes said: “This decision is a welcome outcome for local communities and demonstrates the importance of ensuring that major energy developments are assessed fully and lawfully before consent is granted.
“This was never about opposing renewable energy in principle. It was about making sure that decisions properly reflect cumulative impacts, consider all associated infrastructure and give appropriate weight to local views and the protections that exist for valued landscapes.
“I would like to recognise Scottish Borders Council for standing by its original objection and pursuing the matter. Communities should have confidence that planning processes will be robust, transparent and fair and we hope that E Power now recognise that this is the wrong development, in the wrong place and that they finally abandon their plans for Ditcher Law.”
Laura Bird of the Lauderdale Preservation Group (LPG) said: “We are delighted and relieved that the Scottish Government has seen sense and decided not to fight on to impose this development on our communities.
“Scotland already produces far more renewable energy than it can use. We can’t go on ruining our landscape and heritage, just to line the pockets of investors behind opportunistic energy companies, and Scottish Borders Council is right to stand its ground against the Scottish Government and protect this designated Special Landscape Area.”
LPG member Rory Steel added: “For too long Scotland, and the Borders in particular, has been treated as a windfarm Klondike with no heed paid to the wishes of local people and it has got to stop. Decisions need to be made locally by people who understand their communities, not faceless bureaucrats in Edinburgh.”