Item 6 - Appendix 1
West Dunbartonshire Council · 11 March 2026
Back to Planning Committee — 11 March 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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On-Shore Electricity Generation: Consultation on increasing the threshold for applications under the Electricity Act Respondent Information Form Please Note this form must be completed and returned with your response. To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy: https://www.gov.scot/privacy/ Are you responding as an individual or an organisation? Individual Organisation Full name or organisation’s name Phone number Address Postcode Email Address The Scottish Government would like your permission to publish your consultation response. Please indicate your publishing preference: Publish response with name Publish response only (without name) Do not publish response We will share your response internally with other Scottish Government policy teams who may be addressing the issues you discuss. They may wish to contact you again in the future, but we require your permission to do so. Are you content for Scottish Government to contact you again in relation to this consultation exercise? Yes No West Dunbartonshire Council 16 Church Street, Dumbarton 07385479202 G82 1QL Michael.mulgrew@west-dunbarton.gov.uk Information for organisations: The option 'Publish response only (without name)’ is available for individual respondents only. If this option is selected, the organisation name will still be published. If you choose the option 'Do not publish response', your organisation name may still be listed as having responded to the consultation in, for example, the analysis report. ITEM 6 - APPENDIX 1
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Questionnaire Question 1 Should there be a single threshold applicable to all technologies? Yes No No View Please give reasons for your answer. Question 2 What threshold should apply for applications for electricity generation to be determined by planning authorities? 50MW 100MW 150MW Please add any comment in support of your answer. Question 3 It is considered that a single threshold applicable to all generating technologies would be very clear and consistent and in line with the current single threshold. It is considered that 100MW would be an appropriate balance to address the concerns of parties noted in the consultation and increasing capacity of generating technologies, whilst still maintaining that larger projects have more national oversight. It is noted that such an increase would mean that Planning Authorities would be considering around 79% of applications, based on the profile noted in the consultation. WDC also supports that the full fee will now be received by Planning Authorities to cover the costs associated with processing such applications.
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Any change to the threshold would apply only to new applications. Do you have any comments on transitional arrangements? Question 4 Do you have any other comments to add? Question 5 Do you have any comments on the partial and draft impact assessments undertaken? Question 6 Whilst West Dunbartonshire Council has no particular view on transitional arrangements, for ease of understanding and to ensure procedural consistency, it would be beneficial for any existing S36 that is being considered by the ECU that would be under a revised threshold should maintain its current route and the new arrangements only apply to those that are not yet under consideration. Ministers should be mindful of the requirements under the Planning Act for major/national developments for public consultation that do not apply to S36 applications. In terms of resources, it is recognised that whilst currently Planning Authorities are statutory consultees and carry out significant work in terms of S36 applications, we are not the determining authorities so changes to increase the number of such applications at the local level will increase workload, particularly in respect of administrative functions such as statutory notifications and consultations. Energy consent applications generate a great deal of community interest and typically have high numbers of representations to be processed. Planning Authorities will now receive the full fee and this is welcomed. West Dunbartonshire overall welcomes an increase in thresholds to allow greater community representation and Planning Authority ownership of applications within our area. None.
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Do you have any suggestions for additional sources of information on the potential impacts of the proposals that could help inform our final assessments? None.