Community Ownership

[dozy]

Is it possible for a Community to buy over a Wind Turbine Development under the Land Reform Bill or could they just buy the land that a developer has sited in planning application .....

[Bill Fernie]

The short answer is I think - No.

You might get some useful information at http://www.communitylandtrust.org.uk/

At least two Caithness Community Groups are looking at acquiring land to set up their own wind turbines and so gain the full profits that are much greater than any community benefit albeit that comes with greater responsibilities of runing and maintaining the units. If they can manage the process the benefits to those communities could be very signigficant for their areas in terms of what they will be able to do in crating jobs and starting other businesses using the capital derived from the turbines they run.

See also the HIE web site at
http://www.hie.co.uk/CommunityLand.htm

Of course there are many other possible uses for land ownership than wind turbines. Some communities are acquiring forests.

If the land acquired is a large enough area a whole host of possible uses will be brought forward as we are seeing in Assynt, Gigha and elsewhere.

The Assynt community are also looking to put up a wind farm in order to gain the income to expand what they are doing.

[dozy]

It seems funny but not strange that the answer would be.... NO ....Why is it ,that the COMMUNITIES who have be allowed to buy the estates on the West Coast did so because the Owners did nothing by way of investing in the communities wellbeing .( yes i know about the crofters question etc )
But if a Community has Wind Turbines forced upon and the Landscape/Environment destroyed is it not right that all the profit should go to the Community.They inturn could invest in jobs and other projects that are important to them as a Community or is it that the West Coast is a Special Case .
You mention Community Forest Ownership this could be seem as a ploy just to keep the natives sweet and to take the focus of the possibility of Communities Buying over exsisting Wind Turbine Developments or Communities buying the land from under the developers .
This would being these Wind Factory Developments to a halt if the Companies would only get back the Capital Costs of the project up to the date of purchase and NO profits
Now that would be funny if TAXPAYERS MONEY/LANDTRUST GRANTS being used to BENEFIT THE TAXPAYER.

As for Communities putting up their own turbines ,thats silly and a waste of the landscape ,just get them to band together and buy over the ones that have already taken root in the County ..Its much CHEAPER...