Fife Council’s Executive Committee has deferred investing in controversial proposals for the development of wind turbines on 26 council sites at an anticipated cost of £10.5 million.
Councillors were minded to back in principle a recommendation that £5.5 million from council balances and £5 million from the Climate Change capital plan is considered for the financing of the capital investment.
However, widespread concern from councillors that there was not enough information available regarding public consultation for individual proposed sites as well as doubts over some of the predicted wind speeds at proposed sites led to a decision being delayed until January.
Recommending approval of the proposed funding, Fenella McEwan, Fife Council project lead with the climate change and zero waste team, said in her report: “A number of council-owned sites have been found to have potential for wind turbine developments. More work requires to be done to progress these developments through obtaining planning permissions, procurement and construction.
“The wind projects present an early opportunity for renewable energy development on the council estate. There would be direct energy cost savings and a new net income stream arising from sales of surplus electricity and Government subsidy.
“The projects have the potential to deliver £28.3 million in net operating income and 83,600 tonnes of carbon emission reductions over its life.”
But after a lengthy discussion between councillors, Fife Council leader councillor Alex Rowley said: “I think we all think pursuit of turbines is the right thing to do. There has been a massive failure in meetingclimate change targets so far. But there are questions being asked today about why some proposed sites have failed wind speed tests and why some have not. We are told that some have failed because of noise, which will not fill people with confidence.
“I’m not comfortable with some of the answers that have been given today. I’m also not comfortable simply agreeing this today without having more detailed information about how the council is going to engage with people.
“We also need to communicate with people that the scale of these turbines should not be compared with Little Raith. We need to communicate this to people and get it right.”
SNP group leader, Councillor Peter Grant, along with SNP councillor George Kay, also emphasised that public consultation was vitally important.The decision to defer until more information is available was unanimous.