ARGYLL AND BUTE COUNCIL BUTE AND MID , KINTYRE AND THE ISLANDS AREA COMMITTEE CORPORATE SERVICES NOVEMBER 2007

OPERATION OF WIND FARM TRUSTS – GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS AND SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR CLACHAN FLATS

1. SUMMARY

1.1 This report sets out issues for consideration in regard to the operation of Wind Farm Trusts which receive the benefit of community payments from Wind Farm companies.

2. RECOMMENDATIONS

2.1 To note that the criteria detailed in appendix 1 be adopted as the criteria to be utilised by Community Councils in disbursing funds under any Wind Farm payments.

2.2 That the Council agree to establish an Wind Farm Trust which will receive monies and disburse those to local communities in accordance with that Trust’s determination and being established in accordance with paragraph 4.1 in this report.

2.3 That payments of funds will be made to local Community Councils who will undertake the role of receiving requests for financial assistance from local groups and determining these in accordance with the criteria laid down in Appendix 1 and who shall report annually to the Council on their expenditure and in the event of any expenditure being determined as being contrary to the criteria such expenditure will be dis-allowed and will be withheld from the subsequent year’s grant of monies.

2.4 In any circumstance where the local community council is unwilling to take on the administration of the fund that a Community Trust be established along the lines of the Cruach Mhor Trust as an independent Trust at arms length from the Council and that the question of whether Councillors would serve on that Trust be determined at a later date once the Council has resolved its consideration of its future arrangements for dealing with planning applications.

3. DETAIL

3.1 Argyll and Bute Council has had the benefit of experience of dealing with Wind Farm payments in the Mid Argyll, Kintyre and area and had established a Wind Farm Trust called the Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islay Wind Farm Trust whose sole purpose was to administer the funds accruing to Wind Farms in their area this being at the behest of the power companies dealing with the matter and to ensure compliance with criteria laid down as a result of discussions between the Council and the power company. The criteria for the operation of this Trust is attached hereto as Appendix 1.

3.2 The MAKI Windfarm Trust has no part to play in handing out individual sums of money to interested parties but simply arranges the split of funds where appropriate to the various Community Councils.

3.3 In regard to Bute and Cowal a previous decision had led to the establishment of the Cruach Mhor Wind Farm Trust which is an arms length Trust established with representation from Colintraive and Glendaruel Community Council, (2 reps) the local elected Councillor at that time, the representative from the energy company and one elected Member resident in the community who is not a member of the Community Council or a member or an employee of the Council or the power company. That Trust has been functioning effectively as an arms length Trust which was established with the assistance of the Council.

3.4 In 2003 a decision was taken to approve the Clachan Flats planning application which had an impact on not just the Bute and Cowal area but also on the Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islay area. This led to a decision being taken by a special committee of the two area committees at a meeting on Monday 25 August 2003, in approving that application they imposed a Section 75 Agreement which required inter alia that a Community Trust be established to oversee the dissemination of funds between the two affected communities namely Cairndow Community Council area and Community Council area. Given that the first payment has only recently been received by the Council no further action had been taken on the administrative arrangements to allow for that funding (£14,400 received so far) to be disseminated to the two Community Councils nor had any decision been taken on how this should be split.

3.5 It is clear that the Council needs to give consideration to how it deals generally with such matters and also to deal with the specifics of the Clachan flats application.

3.6 It is suggested that the Council should establish and perhaps re- constitute the Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islay Wind Farm Trust as an Argyll and Bute Wind Farm Trust with representation being the Chair and Vice Chair of each of the four area committees so that if a power company requires that the Council receive funding and pass it on to communities that this is done by that Trust. If that were agreed then in circumstances where the Wind Farm had an impact only on one community council area then all of the funding would be delivered to that community council on an annual basis subject to them reporting back on the spend that they had undertaken and ensuring compliance if so determined with the criteria detailed at Appendix 1 hereto.

3.7 In any circumstance where more than one Community Council is affected then it is suggested that the Area Committee at its next meeting after it has determined the planning application should give consideration to a report from planning officers on what the split should be and at that meeting the Councillor should agree the split between affected community council areas and that would apply for the duration of the Wind Farm payments.

3.8 In the circumstances where the community councils affected straddle more than one area committee area then in the event of the area committees being unable to agree the split between them on the basis of a report submitted by officers the final decision on the split would be taken by the Executive of the Council.

3.9 In establishing the foregoing arrangements the Council would have to have regard to whether there would be any merit in adapting a Community Trust model to disburse the funds to local interests rather than utilise the relevant Community Council as a vehicle and in that respect there may be occasions where the local community council may have been opposed to the Wind Farm Trust and may therefore be reluctant or unwilling to administer the payments thereafter. In such a circumstance it is suggested that the Council should seek to establish an arms length trust which would be operated by the local community on the basis of the model outlined for the Cruach Mhor Wind Farm Trust with at least one representative from the Community Council whom failing the other members detailed in this report, with any spaces created by non participation being filled by election in the relevant area.

3.10 It would seem reasonable to expect Community Councils to undertake this activity given the statutory basis for their set up the transparency of their processes and that they currently report annually to the Council on audited spend.

3.11 In the particular instance of the Clachan Flats application a further complication arises in the fact that there was also a separate ringfenced fund for tree maintenance which was to be established and rolled up for tree maintenance in accordance with the tree management requirements detailed in the planning report and failing which at the end of a period of 5 years any un-utilised sums would be returned to the general community fund for disbursement on the basis of the previous decision of the Council.

3.12 It is important that Member also give consideration as to whether in adopting the Cruach Mhor model it would be wise to have local elected members serve on the Trust and it is suggested that members should consider that if the new arrangements for dealing with planning were adopted by the Council then there would be no barrier to Members of the Council who do not sit on the Central Planning Committee to be Members of a local Community Trust and who could deal with requests for disbursement of monies. However if the Council maintains the existing arrangements of area committees dealing with all planning applications then it would be inappropriate for members of the Council to participate in the disbursement of funds as they may be seen to have an interest in the determination of a planning matter from this role.

4. CONCLUSION

4.1 It is suggested that the Council establish an Argyll and Bute wide Wind Farm Trust with the sole purpose of reviewing monies where power companies require this.

4.2 It is suggested that the Trust allocates funding on the basis agreed by the Council to Community Councils to disburse in accordance with the criteria in Appendix 1 and where this is not possible to seek to establish an arms length Community Trust for that purpose.

4.3 That for Clachan Flats the Council determines the split between the community areas at the November Area Committees and failing agreement by the Executive which allocated sums are then provided to the relevant Community Councils for disbursement.