Reports that almost half of planning applications for onshore wind farms are being rejected will increase the attractions of building offshore wind farms.
Figures obtained by legal firm McGrigors from the Department of Energy and Climate Change under freedom of information legislation show that during the last five years the rejection rate for wind farm planning applications in England and Wales has risen from 29 per cent in 2005 to 48 per cent.
The failure of onshore wind farms to gain support is blamed on increased antipathy by local authorities due to the growing influence of “nimbies” (“not in my back yard”) and anti-wind campaigners. Developers are concerned that the Localism Bill will make planning permission even harder to obtain as, under the Bill, communities will have greater rights to reject development schemes.
“Increasingly, the issues of visual and noise impact are galvanising local communities and councils to try to resist the development of onshore wind farms,” said Andrew Minson, executive director of The Concrete Centre. “The UK is a crowded island and this limits the number of potential sites for onshore windfarms. However, being an island significantly increases the potential for offshore wind farm sites and, therefore, the avoidance of planning conflicts between the local community and developer.”
