What benefits?

I write in response to your report (16 May) on the Land Reform Review Group’s desire to examine the redistribution of benefits that landowners are making from wind farms.

This problem not only lies in this aspect of the renewable energy programme but also in the distribution of community benefit funds, which are part and parcel of all the developments.

Although the Scottish Government is pushing renewable energy it has not grasped the nettle of community benefit distribution and has basically stood back and said it is for the developer to decide whether or not to pay community benefit and to whom this money should be distributed.

Few local authorities have challenged developers on their proposed benefits packages, one of the few shining examples being Highland Region, which has made it clear to developers the minimum value of community benefit it expects and also how this should be distributed to the wider community.

As the article highlights, we all are paying for renewable energy development through our energy bills.

Is it not time that those politicians who claim to have the public interest at heart and the Scottish Government stand up to be counted?

Ian Brown

Livingston