9 Sept 2025
Scottish Ministers pay lip service to “consulting” local communities affected by renewables applications which “oppress” local people, says a leading campaigner against the spread of windfarms in the Borders.
Heriot Community Council chair John Williams, a veteran community representative in wind farm applications, accused the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU) of taking a “hard-nosed” attitude to requests from communities for more time to consider plans.
Writing to MSPs ahead of a Scottish Parliament meeting this Wednesday (September 10) to consider a petition for more community say in windfarm applications, Mr Williams said, “The Scottish Borders is now faced with enormous new pylon lines, vast substations for multiple lines, and of course only too many solar farms.
“I cannot remember a time in the last fifteen years when there has not been at least one wind farm application for us to deal with. We now face SEVEN.
“This is going to destroy the wonderful landscape we have, oppress local people with industrial installations far too close to their homes, and do immense damage to the local ecology, flora and fauna”
“We know from the ECU that Scottish Ministers are demanding the process is speeded up. The ECU have become totally hard-nosed about granting extensions of time to consider applications,” he said.
Among those supporting the petition is South Scotland MSP Sharon Dowey has now said she will back the call from the Scotland against Spin campaign to strengthen community voices when faced with proposed onshore windfarm developments.
Wednesday’s hearing before the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee follows a narrow decision by Scottish Borders (SBC) councillors to oppose an application for eight turbines at Ditcher Law, between Oxton and Lauder, at a planning meeting on Monday.
“While renewable energy has an important role to play in achieving Scotland’s net zero ambitions, it is equally important that communities with concerns are properly empowered within the decision-making process,” wrote Ms Dowey in response to a letter from Mr John Williams urging her to support the petition.
“At present, it appears that many local authorities and community councils feel disadvantaged when faced with complex applications and appeals from well-resourced developers,” she added.
The petition seeks to empower local authorities to ensure local communities are given sufficient professional help to engage in the planning process and demands an independent advocate to ensure local people are not bullied and intimidated during public inquiries.
“The proposals in the petition would help to create a fairer, more transparent system. These changes would protect communities and encourage developers to engage more meaningfully at an earlier stage, leading to better outcomes for all stakeholders,” said Ms Dowey.
SBC’s Ditcher Law decision was split 3-3 and came down to a casting vote by committee chair Cllr Simon Mountford, on the grounds of adverse impact on residential amenity and on the Special Landscape Area.
However, the decision does not automatically trigger a public local inquiry (PLI) as it was beyond the statutory time limit for SBC to respond and the ECU will now review consultation responses before deciding whether to hold a PLI.