Developers welcomed with open arms
The publication of the Shetland Development Charter made me stop and wonder how we actually got to where we are now.
Some left ‘seriously unimpressed’ by Shetland development charter
It seems a long time ago since the proposal to build a windfarm on Shetland was first mentioned and some councillors voted to approve Viking Energy windfarm, against the recommendation to reject it by the SIC planning department. Apparently, according to one councillor I talked to, those who voted for it thought that if they allowed VE to go ahead, it would be the only windfarm built on Shetland. How naïve and how wrong they were.
A petition against the development, with a lot of public support, was raised by Sustainable Shetland and presented to the SIC. Some of you may remember the response that if the people of Shetland didn’t want it then VE wouldn’t go ahead. This was quickly rebuffed by SSE, with the opinion that VE was going to happen, whether the people of Shetland wanted it or not. This attitude seems to drive the modus operandi of developers, coupled with the offer of subsidies and the lure of constraint payments. Add to that the lemming-like obsession the UK and Scottish governments have over achieving so-called net zero and you have a free for all for companies keen to take advantage of the current situation.
The Shetland Development Charter reads like a mixture of corporate mission and vision statements and a political manifesto, while at the same time sounding ominously like a developers’ mandate. The disclaimer at the bottom of page one of the document notes that, “the council remains fully and effectually able to exercise unfettered all of its statutory and other legal powers, rights, and responsibilities”. The SIC, as statutory consultees, have the right and responsibility to respond to planning applications and to reject those that are not in the best interests of the people of Shetland. Instead, we have seen developers welcomed with open arms, their vested interests put before the needs of local communities; landscapes and fragile environments damaged beyond repair and livelihoods, especially in the fishing and tourism sectors, put in jeopardy.
Top of the list of the “nine priority areas in the charter” is, “a just transition”. That phrase is totally meaningless and, like net zero, should be consigned to the bin. In reality, we are experiencing an unjust imposition, as more and more developments are being foisted upon us with no thought or regard to the cumulative impact of these proposed projects. Across Scotland, councils and community councils are banding together to demand a halt to the destructive industrialisation of the areas they represent. I’m glad to see that community councils in Shetland have agreed to come together to question the implications of the effects that large-scale developments would have on the finite islands that we call home. There is a lot of anger about what is happening here and hopefully it can be channelled in a constructive way. As I once said to a list MSP for our area, some people are no longer prepared to sit back and let bad decisions go unchallenged, whether at local or national level.
Rosemary Macklin
Tingwall
