Trouble on the horizon? Addressing place-based values in planning for offshore wind energy

The values held by people in respect of the places that they live in, work in or enjoy, influence the way in which they react to proposals for offshore wind farms that would be visible from coastlines. However, provision for public participation in the Planning Act 2008, under which large offshore wind farms are to be regulated, is inadequate for identifying whether such development would be seen as problematic by those whom it would affect. In this article, I argue that deliberative participation in local and regional plan-making would provide a better means of exploring how offshore infrastructure and popularly held values in places and seascapes might interact, and thereby for determining the extent to which wind farms would be publicly acceptable in coastal waters. It would also reduce the scope for delay to planning from public opposition to which the Government attributes its difficulties with advancing its policies for terrestrial renewable energy generation.