17 Dec 2025
Scottish Ministers are being urged to intervene and order a public local inquiry into a controversial Borders wind farm amid claims that failure to do so would be a “slap in the face for local democracy”
The proposal for eight turbines up to 200m high and a battery energy storage system at Ditcher Law near Oxton has become a new focal point for what is described by campaigners as an “escalating crisis of confidence in the energy consents system”.
Scottish Borders Council (SBC) voted to oppose the development on September 8, 2025, reflecting the democratic decision of its planning committee, but the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU), which handles applications for electricity stations over 50MW, has indicated the objection may be treated as out-of-time and therefore not automatically trigger a public local inquiry (PLI).
The Ditcher Law application was submitted to the ECU on September 15, 2023, but the developer did not submit important additional information, including an impact study, until April 10 this year and a deadline for comments on the new information was set for May 16.
SBC’s principal planning officer Scott Shearer informed the ECU the planning committee schedule was already fully booked until August due to high volumes of Section 36 applications and requested an extension until August 13.
This was granted, but the ECU warned that as the statutory deadline for SBC’s response to the original 2024 application has been missed, an objection based on the new submission would not automatically trigger a mandatory public enquiry.
The decision to call a PLI falls to Scottish Ministers, but communities argue that the planning authority cannot reasonably be expected to form a complete, democratically approved response on the basis of incomplete information, and that the failure to realign statutory deadlines with the publication of new material has unbalanced the process.
Heriot Community Council objected to the Ditcher Law scheme, as the huge turbines will be visible over a wide area, including many areas of Heriot.
John Williams, chair of Heriot Community Council said: “The turbines would be far too close to a considerable number of houses near Oxton, which indicates this scheme is clearly not in a suitable site. A large number of local people have objected to the scheme. Clearly these points made a considerable impression on the SBC Planning Committee, and we were very pleased when they voted to object to the scheme
“The initial objection by SBC represented the considered view of the statutory planning authority and must be given full weight, especially given the fact that vital information was submitted far beyond the original consultation deadline.
“Communities like ours already have little faith in the energy consents system, and SBC received an impossibly short timeframe to consider the additional information. If a PLI on Ditcher Law is blocked on a procedural technicality it would be a slap in the face for local democracy and accountability.”
Rory Steel, chair of Lauderdale Preservation Group, said: “Ditcher Law is symptomatic of what is happening across Scotland with local authorities getting bombarded. Residents cannot be expected to accept a process in which the statutory consultation deadline expired more than a year before key information was even supplied. People will live with the consequences of this development for generations.
“Ministers must ensure an inquiry takes place so decisions are made on facts, not procedural loopholes, and there is a full, independent examination to provide the transparency and fairness a development with decades-long consequences demands.”