Brian Donnelly
Senior News Reporter
CAMPAIGNERS have backed calls for a new law they claim would give
Scotland’s three regional parks greater protection from “industrialisation”
caused by the building of wind farms.
BEAUTY: But campaigners have warned that regional parks like the Pentland
Hills are in danger of being blighted by wind turbines and have called for
urgent action.
The Save Your Regional Park group said special provisions would have been
included when legislation was being drawn up for regional parks had wind
farms been as common as they are now.
Chairman Nigel Willis said a move by SNP MSP Christine Grahame to introduce
a Private Member’s Bill by November that would result in the doubling of
the Pentland Hills Regional Park south of Edinburgh could also lead to
greater protection for the other two regional parks, Clyde Muirshiel, near
Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire and Lomond Hills in Fife.
Campaigners say places of natural beauty would be spoiled by wind turbines
and Mr Willis claimed more than 300 wind turbine applications for in or
around the three parks’ boundaries have been considered or are being planned.
Regional parks are areas for leisure activities close to an urban centre,
are usually funded by neighbouring councils and do not have the same
planning restrictions as Scotland’s two national parks, Cairngorms and Loch
Lomond and the Trossachs.
Mr Willis said such a Private Members Bill would “conserve the Pentlands
effectively for future generations but should be widened to include
protection from industrialisation, otherwise nothing has really been gained”.
He said: “If wind power station development had been in existence when the
regional parks were created, there is little doubt that legislation would
have been incorporated to keep the parks free of such industrialisation,
but that hasn’t happened.”
He said the organisation has been actively opposing wind farms for eight years.
He added: “Of the three regional parks, Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park has
taken the brunt of developers’ attempts to turn the park into an industrial
estate with proposals for over 300 giant turbines in or just outside the park.
“Of these proposals – excluding small turbines – 28 turbines have been
constructed in the park, 15 just outside and there is a current application
for 10 more, with five more at the scoping stage.
“If we want to conserve our regional parks for future generations,
something needs to be done before it is too late and the present generation
of MSPs will go down in history as the people who allowed our wonderful
regional parks to be destroyed.”
The group has been opposing a planning application for Inverclyde Wind
Farm, near Corlic Hill, Greenock, to construct a 10-turbine wind farm.
It is understood there are about 20 planning applications connected to the
Pentland Hllls and surrounding areas lodged.
Campaigners the Penicuik Environment Protection Association previously
opposed a planned wind farm for Mount Lothian that would have been visible
from the Pentland Hills but it was later withdrawn.
The separate campaign has now been set up to extend Pentlands Hills park,
which currently starts just south of Edinburgh and covers parts of
Midlothian and West Lothian, into Lanarkshire.
The plan could benefit homeowners and businesses, but could lead to
development restrictions.
The original idea was the regional park would cover the whole of the
Pentland Hills range, extending further into West Lothian and then into
South Lanarkshire, down the A70 towards Carnwath, and down the A702 into
Scottish Borders past Dolphinton. Over 600,000 people visit the Pentland
Hills every year.
Ms Grahame is consulting with councils and other interested parties on
whether a proposed extension should cover the whole range of the Pentland
Hills. Maintenance costs would also be assessed.
The Friends of the Pentlands group said the regional park covers only about
45% of the Pentland Hills and said “the extension to the boundary could
ensure better protection of the area, provided adequate funding was made
available”.
A spokesman for the Friends group said the south-west Pentlands has
landscape completely different from the north in that it is more open
moorland, almost wild land”. He added: “We would not wish to see this change.”
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