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Public Attitudes to Windfarms: A Survey of Local Residents in Scotland

chapter THREE attitudes to the area

3.1 People living close to windfarms ³ are generally very positive about the area in which they live (chart 1). Most either describe it as 'very good' (50%) or 'fairly good' (42%), figures which are in line with the Scottish average ⁴. Very few say their area is either 'fairly poor' (5%) or 'very poor' (2%).

Chart 1: Overall rating of the local area

3.2 Asked to describe what they like about the areas, people most commonly say the peacefulness (28%), scenery (26%), rural isolation (23%) and friendly people (20%). The rural isolation does, however, have its drawbacks, and when asked what they dislike about the area the most frequent issues mentioned are a lack of amenities (20%), poor public transport (18%), and lack of jobs (8%). Just five people (0.3%) spontaneously mention windfarms as a negative aspect of their area.

3.3 There appears to be no direct relationship between the frequency with which people see their nearby windfarm, and their attitude to their area (see table 1). People who can see the turbines all the time in their day-to-day lives are as likely to describe their area as 'good' as are those who can see the turbines less frequently.

Table 1: Attitude to the area and frequency of seeing the windfarm

3.4 While the overall balance of opinion is similar across age-groups, older people tend to be more effusive in their rating of their area, with 56% of those aged 55 and over saying the area is 'very good', compared with 35% of 18-34 year olds (see table 2).

Table 2: Attitude to the area and age of respondent

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