Goodwill payment objection

A growing number of local communities across

are being drawn in to accepting offers of goodwill payments from wind farm developers, according to a new survey from researchers at the

(CPRE).

The CPRE researchers claim to have discovered that such payments are often used for purposes such as lunch clubs and sports pitches, and that local authority planners have little or no oversight of them.

Paul Miner, senior planning campaigner at the CPRE, said: ‘These offers of community benefit do not go through the proper procedures of the planning system, unlike similar offers from most other developers. By accepting them, communities may also be getting a worse deal than they would if wind farm developers were made to offer them through the planning system.’

The CPRE’s investigation found that there have been least 35 cases, including at least one in every English region, of such goodwill payments being either offered to, or accepted by, local communities.