Portobello and Leith Community Wind Turbine hits stumbling block in land negotiations

Portobello and Leith locals show their support for a community owned turbine at Seafield

Regular Greener Leith readers will know that we have been working for more than twelve months to develop a community owned wind turbine on land at Seafield, in partnership with PEDAL Portobello. Below, is an update and press release on the project.

Plans for the first urban community wind turbine in Scotland have hit a stumbling block after the landowner, Scottish Water changed their stance on the project at the start of this year.

Negotiations stalled after the private sector companies that manage the PFI contract at the treatment works demanded that Scottish Water accept liability for any accidents involving the proposed turbine on the site.

Although the risk of the wind turbine damaging the sewage works is extremely small, Scottish Water have said they are not willing to accept the risk, even though PEDAL and Greener Leith would fund an insurance policy as part of the project.

Talks with the landowner, Scottish Water, and the companies that manage the Seafield site through a Private Finance Initiative began in February 2011. Despite receiving several written assurances from senior staff representing the organisations involved that they would back a turbine on this site, it was not until 19th January 2012, nearly a year later, that Scottish Water changed their stance on the crucial land deal.

The two sides last met on 1 February 2012 in an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the issue. Since then community volunteers, having already put in many hundreds of hours over many months to get the project to this stage, have attempted to lobby Scottish Government ministers, who are the sole shareholders of Scottish Water, in a bid to find a way forward.

To date Scottish Water has not changed its stance on the project.

Proposals to build a single wind turbine on the site are the result of long standing collaboration between neighbouring community groups PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town and Greener Leith.

The extent of the influence of private contractors over Scottish Water is unclear as the project requires a land deal that would last longer than the current PFI contract at Seafield – and the land, like Scottish Water, is ultimately owned by the public sector.

We have called on Scottish Government ministers to direct Scottish Water to indemnify the PFI contract holders from any risk associated with this project.

Alternatively, the Scottish Government should create an indemnity bond to cover community renewable projects on land subject to PFI. This could be covered in the future from the proceeds from community projects that have benefited from it.

PEDAL and Greener Leith already have funding from the Scottish Government and British Gas Energyshare in place to take the project to planning application.

Expert opinion suggests that the Seafield site is the most productive site in the area.

To date, the groups' feasibility work has not uncovered any environmental or engineering reason why the Seafield project could not proceed.

Charlotte Encombe, Chair of Greener Leith said: “We are bitterly disappointed to have got this far only for the project to be stalled on what looks like a technicality.

“We are exploring every available option to resolve this impasse, and will not give up on the project yet.

“We owe it to the thousands of supporters who voted for us on Energyshare.com; the hundreds of local people who will benefit and our project funders to try to find a way to break the deadlock.”

Eva Schonveld, Chair of PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town said: "We are particularly frustrated that Scottish Water has taken a whole year to identify these issues, during which a huge number of volunteer hours have been put into the project.

“Our feasibility work shows there are no technical ‘show-stoppers’ to building a turbine here, we are the most supported of nearly 1000 projects across the UK that took part in the Energyshare competition, and we have all the funds in place to take the project to planning submission.

“We continue to try to resolve the issue of liability through negotiations and political solutions. It seems extraordinary that dozens of wind turbines operate without incident on sewage works around the world, but this cannot be done on public land in Edinburgh.

“We simply cannot accept that, which is why we are determined to find a way forward.”

Georgy Davis of Community Energy Scotland, a membership organisation that represents community renewable energy projects in Scotland said: “This is a disappointing turn of affairs for this inspirational project that is a result of significant community efforts.

“The issue of indemnity for third parties in relation to land that has existing infrastructure on it is one that could be of increasing significance for community-led renewable projects particularly in the urban environment potentially hampering the Scottish Government’s ability to achieve it's target for renewables in general and community renewables in particular.

“We believe the issue needs resolved.”

You can download this post as complete press release in pdf format by clicking here.

Update: Since we posted this on our blog, Scottish Land Ownership expert Andy Wightman pointed out that the Scottish Government could simply direct Scottish Water to allow the project to go ahead if they wished to. 

@PEDALPortobello Section 56 (3) of Water Indutry Act gives @AlexNeilSNP the power of direction over Scottish Water. goo.gl/iK057

— Andy Wightman (@andywightman) April 30, 2012

I love you because you pick up your dog poo

Regular followers of this blog will know we have a thing about sharing home made dog fouling notices, partly because we wonder whether they're more effective than official council ones, and partly because we know its an issue that really annoys people (dog poo, not the notices).

Whilst this one above was spotted on Portobello prom, we share it here because we were taken by the simple positive message. Possibly these stickers are a very rare example of responsible public clip art use.

We also tweeted this colourful and somewhat more direct one that reads "We say no to your pups turd," from Abbeyhill a few weeks ago. Which one do you think is best?

  

For earlier posts featuring home made dog fouling notices spotted around North Edinburgh see this chalk one from Warriston, and this A4 one from Balfour Street. 

Update: Unsurprisingly, North Edinburgh is not the only place where people have been calling foul on dog poo. A local blog serving Nairn - A Gurn from Nurn - has also been sharing signs people have made there.   

Leith to Portobello cycle path improvements approved

Today councillors gave full planning permission to proposals to upgrade the cycle path from Leith Links to Portobello, with work now due to start in the new year on a new ramp out of Leith Links and up to the railway line. 

You can see a detailed map of the Leith Links end of the proposed works here.

This means that the cycle route eastwards from Leith will be much improved. The new path will be tarmac, and not mud, it will be wider, and it will connect properly with Seafield Street and a wider, shared use pavement along Seafield Road that links up with the Portobello promenade. It will also be lit at night for the length of the whole route. 

Lastly, it will also connect with the newly improved loop of path that runs from Seafield Street around Lochend and into Easter Road by Leith Academy. 

Altogether these improvements mean that the cycle routes around the Eastern half of Leith have been much improved - something Greener Leith has been campaigning for since 2007. 

The only things that look likely to cause a delay to the works are bats, badgers and archealogy - according to the planning report. 

Whilst we're assured that these improvements have just about managed to slip in before steep proposed Scottish Government cuts to active travel bugets begin to bite, if you want to see more facilities being built like this in Edinburgh it might be worth taking some action to support the SPOKES campaign to hold the SNP to their budget promises on Active Travel.

You can find out more about the proposed active travel cuts and what you can do to persuade the Scottish Government not to implement them here. 

Thank you for backing our Energyshare bid - we won!

Everyone at Greener Leith and PEDAL-Portobello would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who voted and helped to promote our Energyshare bid. We won!

This funding does not guarantee that the wind turbine will be built, but it does mean that we now have all the funding in place to complete the planning application and associated feasiblity studies as well as gain all the other permissions we need. Most importantly, the fact that more that thousands of people have backed the project demonstrates that there is strong support for the project. 

Here's the text of a press release for anyone who wants it: 

Portobello and Leith Community Wind Turbine wins Energyshare funding Community.

Groups in Portobello and Leith were celebrating yesterday (Saturday) as their renewable energy project won the public vote in the Energyshare.com contest.

The project, a collaboration between neighbouring community groups Pedal – Portobello Transition Town and Greener Leith, aims to build a community-owned wind turbine on the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Site in Edinburgh.

The project won the online Energyshare.com vote, beating off competition from nearly 1,000 other community renewables projects from around the UK. They are awarded funding to complete feasibility work on the wind turbine, which is expected to go to planning permission during 2012.

The Energyshare.com contest is a collaboration between River Cottage and British Gas which awards a total of £500,000 to community renewables projects on the basis of online votes.

Eva Schonveld, Chair of PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town said, “We’re delighted to have won so much support for the project, and would like to thank everyone who took the time to vote for us. The funding is very welcome and will allow us to complete the final stage of feasibility work but just as valuable is the massive support from local people that this vote represents.”

Charlotte Encombe, Chair of Greener Leith said, “A big thank you to everyone who voted online, tweeted, facebooked, blogged and badgered their friends and colleagues to support the project. We’re delighted to be the most popular project in the Energyshare.com contest, but the turbine is not built yet. We still have a number of hurdles to overcome, but this vote gives a clear message that the project has widespread support, for which we are extremely grateful.”

You can find a full press release here.

Leith and Portobello community wind turbine project receives loan boost

A predicted view of how the turbine might look

Scotland’s first community-owned urban wind turbine took a step closer to reality today with the announcement of a £118,000 loan to Greener Leith to undertake preparatory works on the project.

Members of the community group expressed delight at the award from the Scottish Government under the Community and Renewable Energy Scotland loans fund, which covers 90% of the costs of pre-planning submission work for the proposed wind turbine on the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works. The group are still fundraising for the remaining 10% of project costs, but are hopeful the remaining costs can be raised soon.

The project, which is a joint venture between Greener Leith and neighbouring community group PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town, proposes to build a single wind turbine on the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Site of between 500kw and 2,300kw. The electricity would be sold locally and the surplus from the turbine would allow a community fund to benefit the communities of Leith, Portobello and Craigentinny.

Commenting on the announcement, Charlotte Encombe, Chair of Greener Leith said:

"We’re delighted to receive this backing from the Scottish Government, which will help us take this exciting project forward.

"If the wind turbine goes ahead, its surplus will allow a community fund that will directly benefit people living in Portobello, Craigentinny and Leith. Not only will it will provide the resources for green projects that in the current economic climate may not receive funding, we hope it will become an inspiration for other communities to do the same for themselves. Of course there is still a lot of work to be done before the project gets the final green light, but we hope that the proposed wind turbine will become a landmark and a source of local pride; an example of what can be achieved when local communities work together towards a common purpose.”

Eva Schonveld, Chair of PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town said:

"PEDAL have worked hard with Greener Leith to secure this finance for Portobello & Leith Community Wind Energy Project. If it goes ahead it will bring material benefits to the local area as well as wider society and could also provide an inspiring visual focus for real sustainability on Edinburgh's seafront. Clearly there is much still to do, not least in consulting fully with those who will be affected, but this award means we now have the majority of funds in place to take this exciting project to planning submission.”

200 back the Portobello and Leith Community Wind Turbine in 6 days

Greener Leith would like to thank everyone who has signed up to support our Portobello and Leith Community Wind Turbine bid. We've been blown away by the backing we've received from local people, politicians and media.

Your continued support is really important to the sucess of the project, and it really will make it more likely that we will get funding to take the project forwards. At present, our project is the most popular project in the entire UK on the Energyshare.com website - where the projects with the most support at the end of the month are more likely to gain funding.

However, we need to keep adding supporters to stay in the top 5 as lot's of other bids are also still adding supporters every day.

Therefore, if you haven't signed up as a supporter yet please do it straight away! You can do it here:

http://www.energyshare.com/portobello-leith-community-wind-energy-project/

If you have already signed-up as a supporter, please take action to encourage other people you know to sign-up as supporters of the bid. Email them, post the link to Facebook, or Tweet about it. Please help us keep the momentum going in any social network you're involved in. Already 127 people have shared the group on Facebook - but please keep doing it as sometimes people need a second reminder!

If they need more information you can send them this link too:

http://www.greenerleith.org/greener-leith-news/2011/6/3/back-our-energyshare-bid-to-boost-community-power.html

The project has had some fantastic coverage in the local media:

On Wednesday evening STV broadcast a package about the project featuring Justin Kendrick from PEDAL Portobello, Kenny MacAskill MSP and Greener Leith Board member Chas Booth. You can watch it here:

• Scotland's first urban wind turbine could be built in Edinburgh
  

Earlier in the week the Evening News ran a number of stories online and in the paper: 

• Evening News Editorial - More than hot air
• Blow Me - An urban wind farm
• Turbine plan for Seafield

STV also published this post on last Friday: 

• Community groups propse Scotland's first urban wind turbine for Edinburgh

We are also grateful for the visible support of local politicians including Kenny MacAskill MSP, Kezia Dugdale MSP, and Sheila Gilmore MP. If there are any other local politicians reading this, who are not on the planning committee - then please do sign-up too.

And whilst the vast majority of people supporting the bid are from Edinburgh, it's also nice to see that the Isle of Eigg have backed our plan too - as they have been a trail blazing community in the field of community energy.

Greener Leith and PEDAL volunteers have also been doing our best to share as much detail as we can with local residents at public meetings. Last week Greener Leith members discussed the project at the Leith Links Community Council and this week we attended the Friends of the Water of Leith Basin, and the Leith Central Community Council planning sub-committee.

If you would like us to attend a meeting of your community group to discuss the plans then please get in touch.

You can read the FAQ about the project here.

Back our Energyshare bid to boost community power

 A unique partnership between two Edinburgh community groups has been established to develop a community owned wind turbine on the coast between Portobello and Leith.

PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town and Greener Leith have joined forces to conduct detailed feasibility work on a site within the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works. Early surveys suggest a wind turbine on this site has the potential to generate enough renewable energy to supply the annual electricity needs of 300 - 1300 households, depending on the size of turbine installed.

The generator would be the first community-owned urban wind turbine in Scotland.

The project would see substantial sums raised for local community projects over the lifetime of the project. The two groups have now launched a campaign to raise funding to develop the project, and are urging local residents to help win funding by supporting a bid to the Energyshare Fund.

The projects with the most supporters on the Energyshare website have the greatest chance of winning funding. Therefore, both community groups are urging Edinburgh residents to register their support on the Energyshare website before the 30th June at:

http://tiny.cc/porty-leith-wind

Jane Lewis, Chair of PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town said:

“"We have been working hard to find suitable renewable energy projects that will deliver carbon savings, a long-term source of funding for local community projects, and also provide a visible demonstration of the renewable resources to be found locally. We think this proposal has real promise, and we’re asking for community support to take it forward.”

Charlotte Encombe, Chair of Greener Leith said:

"This project could create a community fund to help thousands of local people for many years into the future. Whilst there's still a lot of work to do before the project gets the final green light, we hope that the proposed wind turbine will become a landmark and a source of local pride, as well as power.”

Kenny MacAskill, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern said,

“I fully support this excellent proposal from Pedal and Greener Leith which chimes well with our national moves to develop Scotland as the Green Energy Powerhouse of Europe, and to encourage community ownership of renewables. I’m pleased to hear that Pedal will be seeking local residents’ views.”
 

 Everybody is quite clear that the project will only be able to go ahead with the backing of local residents, and many details of the project remain to be worked out, including the size of the turbine, the way any financial surplus is distributed from the project, and what types of activities the money would be used to fund.

 

The images above illustrate what the turbine would look like if the largest feasible turbine was supported by the public. You can see a larger version of the images by clicking on them.

We should add that these images are just to give you an idea of what the turbine would look like and the final appearance could vary depending upon the outcome of the public consultation process that we intend to announce shortly.

You can find out more details about the project in this Frequently Asked Questions document that we have prepared:

Portobello & Leith Community Wind Energy Project FAQ Final

Lastly, you may think that building a community owned wind turbine is an off the wall idea that could never happen. Well you may be surprised to learn that this week, the first ever community owned wind turbine project on mainland Scotland is about to start generating power, after five years work by local volunteers in the Aberdeenshire area of Udny.

Alastair Tibbitt from Greener Leith managed to catch up with two of those volunteers, Brian MacDougall and Mike MacDonald, after they'd been speaking at a meeting on energy policy called by Friends of the Earth Scotland. They shared their thoughts on their five year journey from idea to turbine construction in an audio interview that you can listen to below: 

Would you like to get involved in helping to develop a community wind turbine project at Seafield? The first thing you need to do is back our bid on the Energyshare website here: http://tiny.cc/porty-leith-wind

Apple trees for sale: £7.50 each

At this time of year most people are probably turning their thoughts to Christmas Trees, and how they're going to overcome the rumoured shortage of Christmas trees. In Edinburgh, it would seem this alleged shortage hasn't affected the Caring Christmas Trees project - so get your order in now. They deliver to ASDA, in Newhaven.

So now, we've sorted that problem for you - you might be interested to know that PEDAL portobello have a surplus of Apple Trees, and they're selling them off cheap. They write:

"We have a glut of good quality fruit trees that we are keen to find good homes for, and thought that some of you may be involved in growing projects that might take a few, or may be interested in one yourself. PEDAL (Portobello Transition Town) have around seventy apple trees, mostly maidens (first year grafts) on medium or dwarfing rootstocks, including varieties such as Discovery, Egremont Russet, Ellison’s Orange, Fiesta, Grenadier, Katy, Lord Derby, Blenheim Orange and others.  

We also have some Morello cherry trees to sell, priced @ £8 ea. These will be on sale at the Portobello Organic Market on Saturday, 4th of December, Brighton Park, Portobello, between 10am and 2pm. These are top quality trees at about 1/3 of the usual garden centre prices. They will potentially provide you with free, naturally grown, fresh and very locally grown fruit, as well as making excellent Christmas presents which last and last. Tell your friends, come early to avoid disappointment and enjoy the excellent market for good, organically produced food as well!

You are welcome to call Peter Upton at PEDAL on 0131 258 4483 from Monday 6th of December to find out if we have any still to sell after the Market."