By Jamie McKenzie
Fresh calls have been made to remove wind turbines from Highland school
playgrounds after a wind turbine similar to ones installed at schools
crashed to the ground for a second time.
The 49ft high turbine at Rhue Stoer Hall, north of Lochinver, snapped in
two following a recent storm.
Campaigners fear that it is only a matter of time before a child is hit by
falling parts of turbines at a school.
They also claim that Highland Council has failed to act on a report which
recommended safety zones around school turbines should be marked with fences.
Brenda Herrick, an anti windfarm campaigner from Castletown who has been
fighting school turbines since 2011, said: “Putting these turbines at
community centres is not quite as bad as putting them at schools as
children cannot choose to avoid them. They have to play round them and it
beggars belief that the council have ignored their own guidelines about
exclusion zones.
“I just have a vision of these parts flying off in to a crowd of children.
There have been so many instances of parts coming off around the UK and in
Scotland but fortunately none have hit anyone.”
She also claims that there is a general ignorance about the number and
frequency of such incidents as the evidence can be concealed before people
find out about it.
A spokeswoman for Highland Council said: “The council’s Health and Safety
team is looking at the implications of this failure for the council’s own
turbines. Our understanding is that the model which failed at Rhue Stoer is
not the same as the one which is installed at the nearby school.”
In the past a turbine failed at Raasay School in 2009, where children were
sent home after one of the blades was found embedded in the ground.
Risk assessments in mid 2012 were carried out at all 16 turbines at
Highland schools after fears were sparked again by the first crash of the
6KW Rhue Stoer turbine on Hogmanay 2011. At this time, one of the turbine
blades broke and flew 60 yards through the air.
The order to switch school turbines back on came in November 2012 after
consultants concluded that the turbines were safe in winds of up to 134mph.
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