Berwick Bank Wind Farm - Compulsory Purchase Order

Berwick Bank Wind Farm Limited has formally promoted a Compulsory Purchase Order (“CPO”) for specific rights in land that are required for the onshore infrastructure forming part of its wider offshore wind farm development in the outer Firth of Forth. CPO is a legal process used to acquire land, or rights in land, needed to enable a project to proceed, where this might otherwise not be possible through negotiation alone.

The CPO process is one running in tandem alongside a planning application being submitted for Berwick Bank Wind Farm seeking permission to approve the construction for Berwick Bank Wind Farms offshore and onshore infrastructure, based in East Lothian.

Berwick Bank Wind Farm’s primary aim is to reach voluntary agreements with all impacted landowners and we are encouraged by the on-going negotiations to date, our decision to submit a CPO is not uncommon and will run in the background to on-going voluntary negotiations. The primary aim remains unchanged; to reach a voluntary agreement with all parties.

We are fully aware and sensitive to the concerns that affected parties may have. We actively encourage all affected parties to discuss their concerns directly with the Project team and if they are not already in dialogue with a member of the team, to please e-mail berwickbank@sse.com for further information

Following the promotion of CPO, affected parties may make a representation to Scottish Ministers (raise an objection) to express concerns or request further information. These representations can then be withdrawn where the party feels satisfied with the information provided and/or where voluntary landowner agreements have been reached.

A complete set of the submitted CPO documents can be found within the Berwick Bank Document Library. The Statement of Reasons document provides additional detail on the rationale behind the use of these powers. The onshore work of an offshore wind project is often over looked, but it is absolutely critical to ensure the project is able to connect into the national grid to transport the clean, renewable energy generated by the wind farm to homes all across the UK. Berwick Bank has the potential to power over 5million homes, twice the amount of homes in Scotland.

We have presented at a number of Community Council meetings and will continue to engage with the local community and other stakeholders along the route.