Petition for Judicial Review in which Trump International sought to challenge the Scottish Government’s decision to consent to an offshore wind farm near its golf resort at Menie in Aberdeenshire [1].
Trump argued that the Scottish Government should not have granted consent in terms of s36 of the Electricity Act 1989 as the wind farm developer did not hold a licence to generate electricity. Trump founded on the decision in Sustainable Shetland v The Scottish Ministers[2] in which Lady Clark found that consent to build a wind farm could not be granted to developers who did not already hold a licence to generate electricity. In the Outer House Lord Doherty disagreed with the interpretation taken in Sustainable Shetland, rejected that argument and dismissed Trump’s petition.
The Inner House have refused an appeal finding that the entitlement to apply for a section 36 consent is not limited to developers who already hold (or are exempt from holding) a licence to generate electricity and that, where an applicant under section 36 obtains consent, it will require to obtain a licence or an exemption before it can generate electricity at the wind farm.
The court also rejected arguments made by Trump to the effect that the Scottish Ministers’ decision had been pre-determined and showed bias.
The full judgement is available from Scottish Courts here.
Also see appeal to the Supreme Court here.
All of our property and conveyancing case summaries are contained in the LKS Property and Conveyancing Casebook here.
[1] The resort has had a controversial history. My blog on some of the issues can be seen here.
[2] [2013] CSOH 158
