The Inner House of the Court of Session has overturned the Scottish Government’s decision to grant permission for the eight‑turbine Wull Muir Wind Farm near Heriot, following a challenge by neighbouring landowner Raeshaw Farms Ltd.

Developer Energiekontor UK Ltd secured consent in January 2025 after a reporter overturned Scottish Borders Council’s original refusal. The reporter concluded the scheme would make a “worthwhile and relatively early contribution” to national renewable energy targets and said the absence of detailed grid‑connection plans did not prevent a proper environmental assessment.

Raeshaw Farms argued that the reporter had sidestepped a key issue: whether the wind farm and its grid connection formed one overall project that should have been assessed together. They said this risked “salami slicing” – splitting a development into separate parts to avoid a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

In a unanimous judgment, Lady Wise said the reporter had misunderstood the project‑splitting test and had concentrated too heavily on how the application was presented, rather than the real‑world scope of the development.

The court found that the reporter failed to grapple with the central question: whether the turbines and the grid works were so closely linked that they should have been assessed as a single project at this stage.

Lady Wise said this was a “material error”, adding that the reporter’s approach showed “a failure to focus on the fundamental question of the interrelationship between the two phases of development”.

The court also upheld a separate challenge on irrationality. The reporter had relied on the scheme’s predicted generating capacity as a benefit, but did not consider the environmental downsides of the grid connection that would be required to deliver those benefits.

Lady Wise compared this to a 2023 English case where a council was criticised for assessing the benefits of a wider development without considering its likely impacts. The same flaw was present here, she said.

The January 2025 decision has been quashed and the case will now go to a different reporter for a fresh determination.

Find a full case report via Scottish Legal News.