New map identifies sheer scale of Highland renewables projects including 1305 applications after months-long battle by Councillor Helen Crawford who says it is a ‘good day for democracy’
One Highland councillor has hailed “a good day for democracy” after the local authority finally delivered a live map of renewables developments including records of more than 1300 applications.
Aird and Loch Ness Cllr Helen Crawford fought for months to get the council to produce the map so that local communities could easily find out where renewable projects may be developed.
Now the map - which can be found here - has shown the hundreds of developments and plans for more than 1300 more all across the region.
SSEN Transmission is responsible for running the power grid and confirmed that its business plan foresees an investment of £22 billion, much of it in the north, to deliver what it calls “mission critical” power infrastructure.
But that sparked a fierce backlash from local communities and the emergence of the campaign group Communities B4 Power Companies who want to push back against what is seen as the industrialisation of the region.
Cllr Crawford had to try twice to get her bid to force the council to produce the map and the second time it did narrowly pass over the objections of the SNP-Independent administration 33 votes to 31.
She said: “It’s definitely a good day for democracy and step forward but Highland Council needs to ensure the map is up to date and fully compliant with the wording of my Motion. I’ll continue to press for that and urge anyone who loves The Highlands to do the same.
“Frankly, this full mapping should have been carried out by the Scottish Government well before now and it should not have been left to someone like me to present a motion to the Highland Council to get the information into the public domain.
“I am just glad it is out there and I hope that it is a support to members of the public and our many community councillors who are trying to respond to complex, major applications for renewables infrastructure.
“As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and this picture is pretty sobering”.
Now the map has been made public, senior administration officials are willing to welcome it, including Cllr Ken Gowans, the chairman of the economy and infrastructure committee.
He said: “This is an incredible piece of work that will assist our communities greatly with finding a significant amount of information related to energy related development within Highland in one map.”
The council said: “This tool will enable those with an interest in understanding the location and type of renewable energy projects within Highland to discover not only what already exists on the ground but also the stage that any projects may be at within the planning process.
“The tool provides key information for each development in a single click with an easy link into the planning case file where further detailed information is required. The information can be easily filtered in many different ways to ease a particular search.”
The council added: “Currently, 1,305 records of applications are included in the mapping database and detailed information about each can be viewed individually or collectively. The records include applications recorded in Highland Council’s development management system”.
