Item 11 Section 36 Applications Consultation Report

This document contains the Cairngorms National Park Authority's proposed response to a Scottish Government consultation about increasing the 50 megawatts (MW) threshold for onshore electricity generation developments. Currently, applications for larger projects exceeding 50MW are decided by Scottish Ministers, while local planning authorities handle smaller ones. The Park Authority supports raising this threshold to at least 100MW, believing it would allow more decisions to be made at a local level, aligning with the principle of "local by default, national by agreement." This change would also increase democratic accountability, better prioritize the development plan, and provide fairer funding for local planning authorities, who already carry out significant work as consultees for these projects.