Ministerial Duties under the Wild Birds Directive and Judicial Review
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2015.0307 |
| Published date | 01 September 2015 |
| Date | 01 September 2015 |
| Pages | 424-428 |
The case concerned a proposal for the construction of Viking Wind, a very large wind farm in the Shetland Islands. Shetland hosts 95% of the UK's population of the whimbrel, a migratory bird that visits the Islands annually to breed. Scottish Natural Heritage raised concerns as a consultee that the project would have a negative impact on breeding pairs of whimbrel at the development site. The developers responded to these concerns by preparing a habitat management plan, but Scottish Natural Heritage maintained its position, arguing that there was no evidence that the proposals for improving the condition of the whimbrel's habitat would compensate for the predicted impact of the wind farm. The Scottish Ministers authorised the project despite this opposition, stating in their decision letter that they were not satisfied, having considered the various representations on the topic, that the estimated impact would be significant. They also accepted the developer's claim that the habitat management plan could reasonably be expected to provide positive counterbalancing benefits for the whimbrel population.
Submissions by Scottish Natural Heritage and the decision letter are available at
The decision letter advised that the Scottish Ministers had had regard to their obligations under EU environmental legislation, but did not refer to the WBD.
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