Planning Scotland's Seas: Sectoral Marine Plans for Offshore Wind, Wave and Tidal Energy in Scottish Waters. Consultation Analysis Report.

2 Introduction

Background

2.1 In 2013, the Scottish Government consulted on a range of marine issues under the Planning Scotland's Seas consultations. Individual consultations looked at:

• A draft National Marine Plan;
• Draft plan options for Offshore Renewable Energy;
• Priority Marine Features;
• Integration between Marine and Terrestrial Planning; and
• Marine Protected Areas network.

2.2 This report focuses on the consultation paper 'Sectoral Marine Plans for Offshore Wind, Wave and Tidal Energy in Scottish Waters Consultation Draft', which was published on 25 ^th July 2013. It outlined Scottish Ministers' proposed spatial policy at the national and regional level for the development of commercial scale offshore renewable energy in Scottish Waters. The draft Plans contained ten proposed options for offshore wind energy, ten for tidal energy and eight for wave energy.

2.3 The Draft Plans Options were subject to Sustainability Appraisal, comprising Strategic Environmental Assessment ( SEA), Habitats Regulations Appraisal ( HRA) and Socio-economic Assessment, and the outcomes of this informed the development of the draft. The assessments identified both strategic issues that applied in all offshore renewable energy regions around Scotland and issues specific only to certain regions.

2.4 The Draft Plans, Sustainability Appraisal Report, SEA Environmental Report and Socio-economics Report were published for consultation in July 2013 and responses were requested by 13 ^th November 2013. The consultation response form comprised 18 questions under four key chapter headings relating to Plan Development, Draft Plan Options, Plan Implementation and Review and Strategic Environmental Assessment. Respondents were also invited to make any additional comments regarding the Plans or related assessments.

2.5 In addition to the invitation to respond to this consultation, interested parties also had the opportunity to participate through associated events. Reports from events are provided on the Scottish Government website.

Overview of responses

2.6 Responses were submitted by email or in hard copy. The consultation attracted 630 responses, 550 from individuals and 80 from organisations, made up of 187 standard consultation responses and 443 campaign responses.

2.7 The 187 standard responses, 115 from individuals and 72 from organisations, addressed some or all the consultation questions and submitted their own comments in addition to any campaign text they might have included. With the exception of Chapter 4, the remainder of this report focuses on analysis of these 187 standard responses.

2.8 For analysis purposes, responses from the 72 organisations were assigned to sub-groups. This enabled analysis of whether differences, or commonalities, appeared across the various different types of organisations that responded. The following table shows the numbers of responses in each group.

Table 2.1 Organisations (Base: 72)

2.9 The standard responses from 115 individuals were analysed by postcode area where this information was provided. There were some particular concentrations of responses; 35 individual responses were submitted from or 'care of' addresses in the Dumfries and Galloway postcode area, 14 from or 'care of' addresses in the PA (Paisley) postcode area, which includes Islay and Mull, and 7 from the KA (Kilmarnock) postcode area.

2.10 The 443 campaign responses, 434 from individuals and nine from organisations, were also analysed by grouping and postcode area.

2.11 Three hundred and ninety-seven respondents submitted a single campaign text opposing the inclusion of the Inner Solway Firth site ( OWSW2) as an area for wind-farm development. These respondents comprised 390 individuals, three local groups, two tourism / recreation organisations and two other organisations. A vast majority (282) of the individual respondents who included postcode information with this campaign text were responding from or 'care of' an address in the Dumfries and Galloway postcode area.

2.12 Forty-six respondents submitted a campaign text opposing the inclusion of the Inner Solway Firth site ( OWSW2) as an area for wind-farm development as well as a second campaign text indicating they were not in favour of developing the Solway Firth at OWSW1/ TSW1. These respondents comprised 44 individuals and two tourism / recreation organisations. Thirty-two of the individual respondents who included postcode information with these campaign texts were responding from or 'care of' an address in the Dumfries and Galloway postcode area.

2.13 A list of all those organisations who submitted a response to the consultation is included in Appendix 1.

Analysis and reporting

2.14 Comments given at each open question were examined and main themes, similar issues raised or comments made in a number of responses, were identified. In addition, sub-themes were identified, such as reasons for opinions, specific examples or explanations, alternative suggestions or other related comments. A copy of all the consultation questions is appended to this report and each question is reproduced and highlighted in the relevant section of this report.

2.15 Two questions contained yes/no tick box options to allow respondents to indicate whether or not they agreed with a particular point. Results from these tick box questions are presented in table format at each relevant question. Wherever relevant, an additional column has been added to show where respondents agreed but added qualifications to their response ('Yes Qualified' or 'No Qualified'). The 'Other' column is used to show any respondents who commented on an issue but did not give a definitive agree or disagree. Respondents counted in the 'No Response' column did not address the question. This protocol is followed for all tables throughout this report.

2.16 Where respondents did not use the questionnaire format for their response but indicated within their text that they agreed or disagreed with a point, these have been included in the yes/no counts.

2.17 The main themes were looked at in relation to respondent groups to ascertain whether any particular theme was specific to one particular group, or whether it appeared in responses across groups.

2.18 While the consultation gave all those who wished to comment an opportunity to do so, given the self-selecting nature of this type of exercise, any figures quoted here cannot be extrapolated to a wider population outwith the respondent sample.

2.19 The following chapters document the substance of the analysis and present the main views expressed in responses. These chapters follow the ordering of the sections in the consultation document.

2.20 Opinions and comments are sometimes attributed to named respondent organisations who gave permission for their responses to be made public, to provide extra detail for some specific points.