Today DECC has published its new policy on community engagement and benefits for onshore wind developments in England.
Onshore wind is a critical technology if we are to meet our 2020 climate and renewable energy targets, as we have written on this blog before. What’s more, we believe that as long as developers are careful to locate developments in the right places, avoiding ecologically sensitive sites, then we can have wind power that is in harmony with the natural environment.
The RSPB has long encouraged Government to take more of an active role in making this happen. Most recently, we encouraged them to develop spatial guidance for wind that would ensure the most sensitive sites are avoided entirely as part of their call for evidence on community engagement.
Sadly, Government has still not done this. In fact, the new community engagement policy has been reported in the media today as a way for people to stop developments from happening at all. The BBC, for example, said that “a Conservative source said the prime minister felt it was important to take local people into account so that if they did not want wind farms they could stop them”.
From this quote you’d be forgiven for thinking that rather than a community engagement policy, Government was backing away from wind power – even though there is general public support for wind power, there’s always someone who won’t be happy with a proposed development.
The good news is, however, that Government’s proposals don’t appear to do this at all. Instead, they are sensible provisions that we hope will bolster community engagement, and thus increase support for wind energy. The proposals include earlier community engagement in wind farm developments, greater transparency on engagement practices and community benefit packages, increased levels of community benefit and the publication of more information on the impacts of onshore wind.
We welcome these initiatives. Transparency and early engagement, in particular, are critical if the wind industry is to build positive relationships with communities and with wider civil society, including organisations like the RSPB. They’re also good for developers as they help avoid damaging and costly fights that can arise either because stakeholder consultation reveals important issues that the developer wasn’t aware of (and therefore hasn’t addressed), or simply because communities feel like a development has been sprung upon them with no opportunities to have their say.
The question this leaves us with, however, is why have these reasonable proposals from Government been reported as new powers to stop wind farms? Our view is that it’s high time this silly rhetoric about wind power ended, and we all got on with the serious business of deploying the low carbon infrastructure we need to meet our climate commitments and keep the lights on. In this, leadership from Government is needed now more than ever.