Looking back over the minutes of community council meetings in the archive, we can see now that the genesis of the Jetty Hut project is traceable back to the Highland Council’s Community Benefit policy, first published on 26 June 2014, and implemented in October 2014. This policy sought an annual donation from renewable energy developments to a Community Benefit fund. The minimum donation to be equivalent to £5,000 per Megawatt of installed capacity per year.
In 2011, prior to formally introducing the Community Benefit policy, Highland Council wrote to various organizations in the renewable energy industry to ask about the potential for a community benefit payment to be made to the local community, related to the construction and commissioning of renewable energy schemes.
The scheme most relevant to Glenfinnan is the Slatach Hydro scheme, an 891kW turbine powerplant on the River Slatach. This was completed by TLS Hydro in 2013 and at that time the company made a one-off donation of £4,500 directly to GCC in recognition of this policy. However, they declined to enter into an annual agreement citing future uncertainties; a reference to the possible consequences of a YES vote in the September 2014 Scottish Independence referendum.