I noticed that the UK CAA (Safety Regulation) has recently devolved its pre-planning role for the development of wind farms. In the press release dated 20 December 2010, the CAA stated that, “A number of specialist aviation consultants are now also available to offer expert advice to interested parties. The CAA has published further information and guidance on its website, which includes all the key issues and procedures developers and the aviation industry need to be aware of.” Click here to read the press release.
Historically, in Australia and elsewhere, the planning of wind farms involved the Aviation Safety Regulator largely because the towers need to be quite high and sometimes they were built in the vicinity of an aerodrome.
There are three elements to the press release that are of interest. Firstly, the UK CAA has acknowledged that their involvement in the process was not a statutory requirement. Secondly, that a number of specialist aviation consultants are available to offer advice to interested partiers at this stage of the development process, and finally, that the UK CAA has provided excellent guidance to developers and other parties on their web site.
In an industry with ever devolving technologies and complex operations, it’s refreshing to see a regulator ditch tasks which are not statutory core business. Instead it has acknowledged that there is another layer of expertise assisted by sound regulatory guidance which can and should be engaged by industry.
Many aviation safety regulators have learnt this lesson and passed with distinction; others have struggled with a basic pass. Some have yet to get to the exam room and these agencies often struggle with resource and governance challenges and generally do nothing well!
