ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that the individual case studies are drawn together with the aim of describing the commonalities and patterns within the sample as a whole. In the welcoming cases, planning authorities had a good working relationship with the offshore wind farm developers. In one of the rejecting cases, one planning authority was fundamentally unhappy with its limited role as a consultee (UCR). Planning authorities in the cases generally accepted the degree of involvement that they were able to have as consultees for offshore wind farms. The public reaction in the rejecting cases was reflected in the response of planning authorities. Another sense in which the cases can be divided is in relation to the way in which planning authorities understood their marine environments. Planning authority responses concentrate mostly on the likely environmental and associated socio-economic effects of the wind farms; the most affected authorities have gone into some detail to consider these, even when in favour of proposed schemes.