The following are indicators of higher levels of project
success:
1. planning consent obtained;
2. reasonable (average) time taken for decision;
3. appeal on planning decision not necessary;
4. planning process did not involve costly requests from
the planning authorities for additional information from
the developer;
5. planning conditions placed on project did not introduce
extensive costs or delays to the project construction.
The above indicators of project success are fairly selfexplanatory.
The main indicator of success is, of course,
whether the project received planning permission. However,
other issues are of importance and add to the
understanding of project success. These include the time
taken for a decision to be made, whether there was an
appeal process, how many requests for special information
were made by planners during the process, and any
conditions placed on a project that is approved. Therefore,
the variable of project success is broken into three ordinal
levels, as defined below, rather than simply ‘success’ and
‘no success’.
10. Data collection
Semi-structured interviews were held with a variety of
individuals involved with each wind energy project. For the
projects in England and Wales, interviews with the
planning officer were conducted in all cases. In addition,
the developer or landowner and the leader of the project
supporters and/or opponents were also interviewed for
most cases. For the Danish projects, the project developer
or landowner was interviewed for all cases, as well as the
relevant planning authority for most cases.
The planning documents on file with the local planning
authorities, particularly the planning officer reports in
England and Wales, were used to identify issues of
importance to individual case studies, focus interview
questions, obtain information unavailable from interviews,
and triangulate data from interviews. In addition, the
letters of support and opposition from the public and
statutory consultees, which are kept on file in the UK
planning offices, were used to clarify and verify information
regarding public opinion obtained from interviews.