How does this impact on Community Wellbeing? Wind farm development adversely impacts community wellbeing via infrasound and low frequency noise pollution, habitat destruction, death and displacement of wildlife, by ruining the character of the landscape, by permanently removing land for local use, and providing money for community funds where some people benefit but many don't. Onshore wind farm development in Scotland has now reached saturation point. The Scottish Govt and its agencies are not mapping or monitoring the visual impact of wind farm development at a national level. Millions of trees are being cut down, peatland is being destroyed and Scottish heritage is being lost forever. Why should the Committee focus on this as part of their future work? Huge numbers of people in local Scottish communities are being very badly affected by wind farm development and the planning process does not fully take into account the issues involved e.g. infrasound and low frequency noise is not monitored or even acknowledged as a problem. Local communities are being overridden by central government on large wind farm developments, which go straight to the Energy Consents Unit instead of local planning departments.
In light of the climate emergency it would be wrong to adopt a blanket "no more on-shore wind farms" approach. I agree however that the distribution of community funds from these wind farms is far from ideal and would like to see them being developed as community assets with the profits going directly to council budgets.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation