ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the marginal place of planning in the development of offshore wind farms in the context of the wider governance of the marine environment. It explores the reasons why planning authorities have shown interest in offshore wind farms. The chapter also discusses the broader relationship of planning to the coastal and marine environment. It considers implications of the study for the place of planning in the wider governance of the seas, including the emerging concept of marine spatial planning. Coastal planning authorities near proposed wind farm sites have had only a minor consultee role, and the development process has been divorced from planning policy and the wider principles of planning. The involvement of UK local authorities in coastal planning and management, although partial, has tended to follow a gradual process of interest extending out from the land.
