Grant Smith
Two community councils have urged government planning officials to refuse
permission for a windfarm a few miles north of Dundee.
West Coast Energy wants to build five turbines, each up to 400 feet high,
along south-facing slopes of the ridge along Lorns Hill and Dodd Hill,
which lie east of the A90 opposite Tealing.
Angus Council refused consent for the development earlier this year,
claiming it would have an unacceptable impact on the landscape, but the
company is now attempting to get this ruling overturned on appeal.
Murroes and Wellbank Community Council objected, saying the windfarm would
“change the skyline” for many years to come.
“The turbines will be out of proportion with any other structure or natural
feature in the area resulting in enormous, discordant, artificial
structures in a predominantly rural, agricultural landscape.
“The impact of the proposed windfarm will be harmful to the countryside
setting of the Carrot Hill visitors’ area, the surrounding villages of
Wellbank, Kellas, Tealing and many other small communities in the Murroes
area,” they said.
Members were also worried the cumulative effect of the numerous windfarm
proposals in the area would “devastate” the south Angus countryside.
Graeme Reoch, chairman of Tealing Community Council, noted the company had
offered to accept a condition that restricted the height of the turbines to
a little over 300 feet, but he said concerns about the visual impact remained.
People were also worried that reduced power generation capacity now might
lead to extra turbines being requested for the site later.
West Coast Energy said a balance had to be struck between the competing
demands of renewable energy resource exploitation and countryside
protection and its proposal had been “sympathetically designed” to suit the
landscape.
It added: “It is acknowledged that the proposed development would result in
localised adverse change in character, which is common to all onshore
windfarm developments due to the nature of the technology employed.
“However, the development is of a scale that would not exceed the capacity
of the landscape to accommodate wind energy development.”
No date has been set for the appeal to be determined.
2 Comments
Peter Evans · November 6, 2013 at 10:44 am
“West Coast Energy said a balance had to be struck between the competing demands of renewable energy resource exploitation and countryside protection and its proposal had been ‘sympathetically designed’ to suit the landscape.
“Sympathecially designed” – utter tosh. No wind farm is sympathetically designed. And local objections will no doubt count for nought again. The so called competing demands of renewable energy exploitation and the countryside generally means that, aided and abetted by the Scottish Government, renewable energy exploitation wins. The system is weighted massively against the people these monstrosities affect, whether locals or visitors.