Press Release 17 March 2014
Walkers and climbers turn their backs on Scotland as electricity companies industrialise wild lands
The Scottish Government is being called on to act now to protect wild lands as a survey reveals that wind farms in mountain areas are damaging a key area of tourism. The call from Scotland’s representative body for mountaineering comes ahead of tomorrow’s debate at Holyrood when MSPs will discuss the Draft Third National Planning Framework (NPF3).
A survey of nearly 1,000 climbers and hill walkers, carried out by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, revealed that 68% say parts of Scotland are now less appealing because of wind farms. Around two thirds have already been put off by wind farms from visiting or revisiting places in Scotland they had visited before.
Over four-fifths of respondents said there must be protection for National Parks, National Scenic Areas and Core Areas of wild land. Two-thirds want buffer zones so developers cannot spoil these special areas by placing industrial-scale wind farms around their perimeters.
And 67% say wind farms are making Scotland as a whole a less appealing place to visit.
The findings (see summary in Notes for Editors) come as large electricity generation and other renewables companies lobby the Scottish Government to abandon proposals for stronger planning guidelines (part of the NPF3 process) which would offer some extra protection for wild lands.
David Gibson, MCofS Chief Officer, said: “The survey results are a stark warning to the Scottish Government – badly sited wind farms are a serious threat to Scotland’s reputation as a tourism destination. The more that are built in our mountains, the more visitors are put off.
“Many of the wind farms planned for Scotland’s most remote and beautiful areas have yet been built and the evidence from this, and other surveys, suggests that visitors dislike them more and more as they cease to be a novelty.
“Natural heritage tourism is worth £1.6 billion (see Notes for Editors) to the Scottish economy and tourism organisations have consistently emphasised the importance of nurturing these kinds of visitors. One of the main ways of doing this is to ensure that Scotland is seen as offering an “authentic” experience.
“We have written to Energy, Enterprise and Tourism minister Fergus Ewing, who holds the brief both for the approval of large scale renewable energy developments and for tourism, asking for a meeting to discuss the urgent need to protect Scotland’s rapidly diminishing wild, open mountain landscapes.
“It is deeply disturbing that the renewables lobby is using all its influence to push the Scottish Government into abandoning proposals that would give some protection to one of Scotland’s greatest natural assets.
“Ministers must take decisive action to defend Scotland’s natural heritage and the livelihoods of all those small businesses and jobs that depend on walkers and climbers to make a living.”
The need to protect Scotland’s reputation among hill walkers and climbers was emphasised by the BMC (British Mountaineering Council), sister organisation of MCofS, which represents climbers and hill walkers in England and Wales.
BMC CEO Dave Turnbull said: “The survey results are no surprise to the BMC. The ‘away from it all’ feel of the Scottish mountains is one of their biggest attractions to walkers and climbers from south of the border. People will naturally vote with their feet and start avoiding areas with intrusive wind farm developments.”
Andrew Northcott, an English climber, is among those who increasingly find that badly sited wind farms are damaging the qualities which make Scotland’s mountains so special.
He said: “I headed up Meall nam Fuaran from Glen Quaich. It was my first walk in the Highlands for almost a year and I really looked forward to it.
“There should have been a fabulous view towards snow-covered mountains – but what a shame! Someone had put a wind farm high up at 600 meters, changing the wild experience and obscuring the view. I counted 14 turbines in total.
“Why is Scotland’s environment being trashed in pursuit of power?”
These views were echoed by John Mackenzie, The Earl of Cromartie, who runs a tourism business at Castle Leod, in Strathpeffer, and who is current president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club and a former MCofS president.
“The attraction of Scotland for the climbers and hill walkers who live here, and for the many who visit from the rest of the UK and overseas, is that it offers the chance to escape into wild and beautiful mountains that are both accessible and of world class status despite their relatively small size; real mountains but on a human scale. It is this small scale of landscape that therefore makes industrial turbines so out of scale and thus visually intrusive.
“The mountain landscape is now under severe threat from the growing numbers of these industrial-scale wind farms that are increasingly changing the character of the landscape. It may not be easy to restore the landscape once the turbines have reached the end of their operating life. It is essential that we put a brake on this in order to protect our mountains and the tourism which is so vital to the prosperity of so many people in small and remote communities.
“The main cause of objection to this out-of-scale industrialisation is where it is placed and the effect it has on our landscape. The Scottish Government should seriously consider a buffer zone and be stringent where turbines are proposed in designated landscape areas.”
Ends
Notes for Editors:
• Contact David Gibson, Chief Officer on 07845-919150 or david@mcofs.org.uk (Monday / Tuesday 17 / 18 March only) or Neil Reid, Communications Officer on 07788-871803, or 01738-493942.
• The MCofS represents supports and promotes Scottish mountaineering and has 12,000 members and also acts for the 75,000 members of the BMC (British Mountaineering Council) on matters related to Landscape and Access in Scotland.
• The MCofS supports the Scottish Government’s desire to increase production of electricity from renewable sources and has objected to only 6% of wind farm proposals to date. The MCofS is seeking robust protection in planning policy for Scotland’s mountains and wild land.
• For further information about the MCofS and for our manifesto, Protecting our Mountains: The MCofS Manifesto on Onshore Wind Farms, see http://www.mcofs.org.uk/lps.asp
• Natural heritage tourism is worth £1.6 billion; refer to table 52 on page 86 of SNH Commissioned Report number 398: Assessing the economic impacts of nature based tourism in Scotland, see http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/B726802.pdf
• According to the SNH Scottish Recreation Survey, adults living in Scotland made 360 million visits to the outdoors for leisure and recreation; hill walking was included as an activity on an estimated 7.2 million visits in 2011, see http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/B1121005.pdf
Survey Summary
This survey provides clear evidence that mountain-goers do not want to pursue their activity, and spend their money, in areas they regard as spoiled by industrial-scale wind farms. They are changing their behaviour to avoid such areas, and sometimes Scotland altogether. This is consistent with a trend in other surveys showing a rising proportion of discouraged visitors.
The full survey report is available for download at:
http://www.mcofs.org.uk/assets/pdfs/mcofs-wind-farm-survey-report_2014.pdf
• The Mountaineering Council of Scotland undertook a survey to identify if the growing number of wind farms and their increasing reach into mountainous areas was having any impact upon mountaineering activity and whether the MCofS position on the areas of Scotland that should be protected from development properly reflected the collective view of its members.
• There were 970 respondents. Two thirds (66%) were MCofS members and 159 were members of the British Mountaineering Council (including 53 who were members of both). Nearly one quarter (23%) did not state an affiliation. Three quarters (77%) lived in Scotland.
• A substantial majority of MCofS respondents believe that wind farms are having an adverse effect on Scotland’s mountains, outnumbering those who believe there is no effect by three to one. The same is true of BMC respondents and those not stating affiliation, though the majorities are smaller, reducing to two to one for the last group.
• A large majority supports the action that MCofS believes is necessary to preserve Scotland’s mountain assets: no wind farms in National Parks, National Scenic Areas, Core Areas of Wild Land and a ‘buffer zone’ around them. MCofS respondents support this position by a majority of ten to one over the option of having no blanket constraints (71% vs 7%) and BMC members and respondents not stating affiliation by majorities of over five to one.
• This survey suggests that a majority of mountaineers are discouraged by wind farms and their main behavioural response is to avoid areas with wind farms. Responses to all of the questions and across all affiliations and places of residence were consistent. Mountaineers living outside Scotland are less likely to visit Scottish mountains. A maximum of one quarter of respondents were unconcerned about wind farms in mountain landscapes.
• This survey provides empirical evidence from a niche market important for tourism in remote areas of Scotland. We contend that these results also sound a warning of reputational damage that could reach much wider than mountaineering and afflict Scottish landscape-based tourism more generally as the distinctive local landscape characteristics of large areas become homogenised into “landscape with turbines”.
• Surveys of the general public also suggest a trend of rising visitor discouragement due to wind farms, from under 10% before 2008 to 17% in 2011 and 26% in 2013.
• Scotland’s mountains are intrinsic to Scotland’s reputation at home and abroad. Amongst mountaineers and others that reputation is degrading, putting at risk local economies that rely upon it.
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