Statistics from Scottish Borders Council have revealed that they are now
dealing with over one application every single week for a new windfarm.
Over the last 18 months 77 bids have been made to place wind turbines in
the Borders, averaging out at just over one every week.
It comes as the government continue their drive to site as many windfarms
as possible to meet their energy targets which aim to have 100% renewable
energy by 2020. This is often at the expense of local communities, who
often are against turbines being sited in their area but are overruled.
Local MSP John Lamont said: “Many communities in the Borders know
first-hand about the problems we’ve experienced with industrial windfarms
in our region.
“Ever since the government started this drive to site as many windfarms as
possible across Scotland, our countryside has been seen as a target for
potential developers.
“This has seen floods of applications made to the council’s planning
department, and these statistics show that they’re having to deal with more
than one every week. This not only takes up a lot of time of planning
officials, but also costs the council a lot of money to deal with.
“This strain is undoubtedly harming other aspects of the work the council
does, and it simply cannot be allowed to continue. When many of the
applications that are turned down by the council are subsequently waved
through by the government in Holyrood, it raises questions about why they
even bother at all.”
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