The UK Supreme Court has ruled local authorities cannot take a community benefit fund into account when deciding on granting permission for a wind farm.
The London court dismissed an appeal by Resilient Energy and Forest of Dean District Council, which in 2015 gave approval for a single 500kW turbine at Severndale Farm in Gloucestershire that was subsequently overturned in the High Court the following year.
Resilient proposed the turbine would be built and run by a community benefit society and that an annual donation would be made to a local community fund.
The Supreme Court (pictured) found it was unlawful for Forest of Dean District Council to take the donation into account as a material consideration in granting planning permission.
“The community benefits to be provided by Resilient did not affect the use of the land,” said Lord Justice Sales.
“Instead, they were proffered as a general inducement to the council to grant planning permission and constituted a method of seeking to buy the permission sought, in breach of the principle that planning permission cannot be bought or sold.”