Councillors give green light despite protest
by Sean Rooney
Campaigners were left crestfallen after a further two wind turbines were approved for construction near Neilston.
Local residents had banded together to oppose the constrcution of the two turbines near Kingston Road.
One of the turbines will be almost 200ft tall and both are to be built in an area which councillors claim is “saturated” with wind turbines already.
And compaigners say the elected officials on East Renfrewshire Council’s planning committee have failed in their duties to represent the people.
After a meeting of East Renfreshire Council’s planning committee on Wednesday, councillors opted to approve both applications after deciding it would be “pointless” to refuse – as the Scottish Government would simply overturn their decision.
Barrhead councillor and chiarman of the planning committee Kenny Hay led both motions to approve saying “I think it is safe to say that none of us in here want to approve any more wind turbines, but unfortunately there are no solid reasons for refusal.
“In the past we have been able to turn down applications after the airport had objected. However we don’t have such a solid reason to refuse this time and I fear that if we were to refuse we would simply be overturned by the Scottish Government, wasting tax payer’s money in the process”.
Cllr Stewart Miller has previously abstained from voting on planning issues in protest at the council’s decision to remove public representations from its online planning resource. He has also been openly critical of the amount of wind turbines in East Renfrewshire saying he would take any opportuinity to refuse one, a statement he reiterated on Thursday before seconding Cllr Hay’s motion to approve the plans.
Residents had objected to the porposals for a number of different reasons from the cumulative landscape and visual impact of the turbines to the excess noise generated.
Campaigners claim existing turbines are already breaching noise regulations, a problem they claim ERC has failed to act on despite independent reports from third party investigators stating that noise levels are above agreed limits. They also pointed out Scottish Natural Heritage guidance.
Aileen Jackson, an Uplawmoor resident and anti-turbine campaigner, said, “I am just about to write to SNH and the Scottish Government with a report of proceedings. I will be mentioning among other things that after two years of noise complaints from a number of properties and all the evidence supplied by experts which point to a problem that needs investigated, we haven’t even had a visit from an environmental health officer. As no actual testing has been undertaken, how can they possibly know the true extent of the problem”.
“ERC simply ignore all expert advice, including that of SNH, as the effort and expense of any appeal which would accompany a refusal of planning permission, is too inconvenient. That is what the decision was based on. Three councillors voted to refuse on material planning considerations and three voted to approve based on their fear of an appeal, with the Chair using his casting vote. That is not acceptable. Interestingly, they did not acknowledge Uplawmoor or Neilston Community Council as being statutory consultees.”
The Councillors, including one Labour and two Tory councillors, opposed both turbine proposals.
Councillor Paul O’Kane, a Neilston councillor, said “This application is contrary to Scottish Natural Heritage guidelines. This area is completely oversaturated with turbines and the visual impact on the area is certainly a factor in my opposition to this.”
Three councillors, including Cllr Hay, Cllr Miller and provost Alastair Carmichael (SNP) voted in favour of the proposals, while three including Councillor O’Kane, Cllr Gordon McCaskill and Councillor Barbara Grant opposed the plans.
The deciding vote fell to Chairman Kenny Hay in both cases and he opted to approve the plans.
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