Securing Planning Permission for Onshore Wind Farms: The Imperativeness of Public Participation

This article considers the role of the public in obtaining planning permission for onshore wind farms in the UK. Attention will centre primarily on planning law and policy in England and Wales and the role of developers in engaging the public. Part I assesses the importance of public participation generally and reviews current public perception of wind farms. Part II sets out the planning permission legislative processes for wind farms and the involvement of the public within these. Part III looks at alternative ways of improving public acceptance of turbines and, finally, Part IV considers solutions to increasing public participation in planning decisions for these structures. The conclusion reached will be that, while planning procedures must become more participative – especially with regard to early engagement by developers of local communities in the area of the proposed wind farm – it is unlikely that the prescriptive laws required to ensure this will transpire in the near future. Responsibility, therefore, falls to developers to voluntarily apply this engagement to their pre-planning application procedures to ensure that a greater number of onshore wind farms gain planning permission without delay.