By Graeme Strachan
Opposition is rapidly growing against a malt firm’s bid to put up a turbine
at its Angus plant.
Residents, the Ministry of Defence and the council’s countryside officer
have all raised concerns against the application.
Bairds Malt has 57 Angus employees and has supply contracts with more than
1,000 farms, 230 of them spread throughout the region.
The energy consumption of the plant on Elliot Industrial Estate in Arbroath
costs Bairds Malt £2.5 million per year in bills.
The company believes a single turbine will safeguard jobs and significantly
reduce the electricity consumption of the plant.
Shane Bibby lives across the street from the proposed site and said the
company should reconsider the turbine plan.
He said: “I find it ridiculous that this is even being considered adjacent
to a residential housing estate.
“I also believe this wind turbine will have a serious detrimental effect on
property values.”
Another resident, Christopher Moore, said it was “unthinkable” to allow the
project to go ahead.
He said: “It was made plain at the public consultation that people were
horrified at the notion.
“It is not fair that householders should suffer for commercial gain.”
Fred Crowe said the application was “ridiculous” and the view from his
garden would be “intolerable”.
“The racket already coming from the site is unbearable and will only get
worse,” he said.
“No resident in the area will gain anything from the turbine and as far as
I am aware only the builder will benefit.”
Graeme Cargill said the current background noise levels from the factory
“are more than enough to deal with during peak processing times”.
“A potential 24/7 365 days per year increase in noise levels is totally
unacceptable,” he added.
“The noise from these turbines will be detrimental to my health and
enjoyment of my property.”
The Ministry of Defence has objected on the grounds that the turbine would
cause unacceptable interference to RAF Leuchars radar systems.
The council’s countryside officer Paul Clark said the turbine would likely
have a detrimental impact on the amenity of a nearby path.
He said: “The movement of turbine blades in close proximity to the path may
also be intimidating to some users.
“The proposed relocation of the path, to provide a separation distance
equivalent to the blade tip height, will help make the proposed turbine
less intimidating to path users.
“Detouring the path from its current straight line, and creation of high
security fencing over the current path line, will however break up the
visual integrity of the path and give an overall more industrial feel to
the path setting,” he added.
The proposed single turbine would be situated on the south-west corner of
their site, with a height of 252ft to tip.
The installed capacity of the turbine would be 900kW, which would produce
in the region of 2.3GWh per year the equivalent of the annual energy
usage of around 500 homes.
Bairds Malt first announced the plans for a medium-sized single turbine in
summer 2013 and invited residents to two information days at the plant to
answer any questions.
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