Staffing levels blamed for Dumfries and Galloway wind farm planning delays

The complexity of cases and small staff numbers have been blamed for a council’s failure to decide on a string of wind farm applications in its area.

It has resulted in a number of Dumfries and Galloway projects being taken to the Scottish government on appeal.

The council has four months to determine an application – unless a different timescale can be agreed.

It said steps were being taken to try to address its “well documented” issues with development management.

The south west of Scotland is one of the country’s most popular locations for turbines.

Of the 50 most recent wind farm projects taken to the Scottish government’s planning and environmental appeals division, 11 have been in Dumfries and Galloway.

Eight of those have been due to its failure to decide within the required four-month timescale.

In contrast, there have only been two other appeals in the last 50 on those grounds in the whole of Scotland with the vast majority down to refusal by the local council.

The local authority said the time frame could be extended if a processing agreement could be reached with a developer setting out a “realistic agreed timescale for determination”.

“Given the volume of such applications currently, together with the complexity of each case, the amount of consultation responses required, and the small size of the team processing these applications, we always seek the use of a processing agreement,” it said in a statement.

“However, there is no obligation on developers to do this and some decline these requests, in order to retain their right to submit a non-determination appeal to the Scottish ministers after the four-month period has expired.

“We cannot prevent any applicant from exercising this right.”

It added that the issue had been discussed at a number of committee meetings, most recently in November.

It was agreed then to take forward plans to recruit a number of new staff to “build resilience” into the service which should, in turn, improve performance.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Planning authorities should aim to reach a decision within four months of receiving a valid application for a major or national development and two months for a local development, unless an extension to this period is agreed by the planning authority and the applicant.

“There has been no recent change to these arrangements, which have been in place for a number of years.”

MSPs recently signed off new planning rules which will give priority to renewable energy schemes like wind farms.

They say all proposals for such projects will be supported other than in national parks and national scenic areas.