Scottish councils adopt Hagshaw Development Framework
LUC played a leading role in the creation of the Development Framework for the Hagshaw Energy Cluster which was adopted by East Ayrshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council in July 2023. LUC worked collaboratively alongside NatureScot, South Lanarkshire Council, East Ayrshire Council, and Architecture & Design Scotland to establish the Development Framework.
The framework guides the future development and repowering of wind farms in the Hagshaw Wind Energy Cluster in South Lanarkshire and East Ayrshire.
It also identifies opportunities for social, recreational, and environmental benefits that would leave a positive and lasting legacy for nature, people and place. LUC co-ordinated stakeholder engagement and consultation to help shape the framework and produced supporting graphics and indicative maps for the development framework document.
The framework now forms non-statutory planning guidance that will help shape future development within the cluster in a clear and coordinated way. The framework will also act as an exemplar case study that can be replicated for other similar strategic zones of renewable energy development across Scotland.
There is over 200MW of consented onshore wind development under construction within the cluster which is due to be completed by the end of 2024. In total, there is 580MW of renewable energy committed within the cluster - the development will expand in the coming years as additional grid capacity is delivered.
LUC's work on this project was shortlisted for a 2023 Landscape Institute Award.
