Viking planning saga nears its finale

THE LONG running saga over whether Shetland’s Viking Energy wind farm should be allowed to proceed could come to an end on Monday.

The UK Supreme Court has said that it will announce its judgment on the case on Monday morning.

This is the third court case over the Scottish government’s decision to grant consent to the 103 turbine development back in April 2012.

Anti-Viking campaign group Sustainable Shetland appealed the decision through judicial review at the Court of Session, where Lady Clark of Calton concluded in September 2013 that the consent was incompetent as Viking Energy had not “meaningfully engaged” with the European Wild Birds Directive.

The argument revolved around the fate of the rare whimbrel, 95 per cent of whose UK population of around 300 pairs resides in Shetland.

The Scottish government successfully appealed to the Court of Session’s Inner Court, which ruled in July last year that the birds directive had been adhered to.

Despite the huge potential court costs, Sustainable Shetland decided to take the matter further to the UK’s highest appeal court in London, the Supreme Court.

In December last year five law lords heard arguments from Sustainable Shetland’s QC Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw that the Viking Energy site should have been designated as a protected area for whimbrel where no wind farm should be built.

On Monday the law lords will announce their view on whether the Inner House was correct in its judgment and whether the government consent was lawful.

However this might not be the end of the matter, with the law lords also having to consider whether the case should be referred further to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The Supreme Court ruling will be streamed live at https://www.supremecourt.uk/live/court-02.html

The morning session is scheduled to begin at 9.45am, with the Viking case second on the bill.