Wind power: challenges to planning policy in the UK

Controversy has surrounded the development of windfarms since they started to appear in England and Wales in 1991, and the issues have received considerable media attention. The conflict has taken place within the planning system, site by site. Closer examination suggests that the wind power controversy is a result of the inadequate integration of both the two main bodies of public policy which bear upon the topic: energy policy and land use planning policy. Wind power is being developed within the culture of energy policy with its supply-side bias and its capacity to allow for rapid technological change which is counter to the protective and regulatory approach of planning policy for the upland areas chiefly affected. As a result the existing public policy framework in the UK is failing to address all the strategic issues posed by the development of wind power for the uplands of Britain. This paper starts to analyse the issues involved. The content, application and interactions of the relevant areas of policy are examined and related to the requirements for a strategic approach to wind power.