Crofting Matters - Big Projects, Local Communities - Navigating Development Proposals

Why is there so much development happening at the moment?

From a utilities point of view, uh, there's a huge amount of development going on.

I think we should, first of all, say that the, uh, infrastructure we see, so the grid infrastructure we see across Brit- Britain was mostly built in the 1960s and was there to carry electricity, uh, produced by coal.

And since then, we haven't had a huge amount of investment in our, uh, grid infrastructure.

And the government have a, uh, action plan, which is titled The Clean Power by 2030, or sorry, the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, uh, where they would like to see a new inf- a new grid infrastructure in place transmitting all clean energy.

Um, and to be able to achieve that, we, first of all, need to produce green energy.

And around the coast of, uh, Scotland mostly, but, uh, some in northern England, we're seeing a huge amount of wind farms in planning, uh, which will produce, uh, in the region of 40 gigawatts of clean power.

And to be able to transmit this clean, uh, energy around, uh, the UK and through Scotland, the, uh, the, the on-land transmission grid infrastructure needs to be upgraded.

Um, and, uh, SSE alone are, uh, planning over 400 kilometers of new transmission lines and a further 400 kilometers or thereabouts of upgrades to existing transmission lines.

So, that, that is really why, um, many landowners and many crofters, uh, and, uh, land occupiers are getting approached at the moment by, uh, developers and, uh, utility companies.

And worth saying that that, I mean, obviously, that's SSE alone, but there are a huge number of different companies that are involved in various different developments across the country.

Yes, that's correct.

Uh, the, Scotland can be split into sort of two constituencies when it comes to, uh, DCOs.

In the northern part of Scotland is SSE, in the, uh, and in the southern part of Scotland is Scottish Power.

And, uh, in the, in the same way SSE have a huge amount of, uh, new infrastructure being developed, so do, uh, Scottish Power in the southern part of Scotland.

What do you see the opportunities as for- the country at the moment and also for rural communities in Scotland with all of this development that is happening?

I think the opportunities, um, for rural communities mostly, uh, lie in the revenue that will be invested into the rural areas through the supply chain of these contracts.

In many cases, they are multi-billion pound projects, and there will be a range of works associated to them.

And for rural communities, what you will hopefully find is that local contractors will be, uh, getting used, uh, local haulage companies will be getting used.

Perhaps a local quarry will be getting used to provide stone for temporary roads, uh, fencing contractors.

Um, and I think that is where we will, wh- where communities will see, um, a good amount of, uh, money being invested into, um, employment in, in, in rural areas, perhaps where, uh, on a typical day or a typical period, uh, there, there isn't that level of revenue coming in.

What different types of development do you think we're likely to see more of across the crofting counties in particular?

At the moment, I, I, I think the, the focus really is from the, from the government on, uh, clean energy production and then transmitting that energy.

The, the most likely, uh, project that crofters and, uh, other landowners and occupiers will be approached about at the moment is, uh, new transmission lines.

As a local resident in areas where these kinds of developments are happening, I mean, I'm based up in Shetland, and I, I know from personal experience that you hear about a lot of things that are happening, might be happening.