By Iain Ramage
A furious row erupted last night after Highland councillors approved a new
document that campaigners say opens the door to more wind turbines around
Loch Ness.
The planning committee yesterday approved revised guidelines indicating
areas where windfarms could – and should not – be built.
In contrast to previous policy, a new map shows swathes of countryside
between 10 and 20 miles from Loch Ness that are now “potential areas for
development”, although not necessarily for industrial-sized turbines.
While the focus is on more domestic scale turbines, the new guidelines
allow for further large scale towers “around existing clusters”.
Councillors unanimously approved the document despite fresh potential for
the Ben Wyvis area where a public inquiry recently rejected the
construction of a windfarm.
The document has so far omitted Caithness and the Black Isle.
Principal planner David Cowie told councillors that guidelines for those
areas would follow and that the document, which followed three rounds of
public consultation, was “not a map of allocations.”
The colour-coded maps, however, show designated areas that are either “not
acceptable for windfarms” or “areas of significant protection” or “areas
with potential for windfarm development.”
Loch Ness falls into the latter category as part of “a response to new
Scottish Government planning policies.”
SNP Wester Ross and Strathpeffer councillor Ian Cockburn was puzzled by the
blue coding for Ben Wyvis.
“It’s not on,” he said.
There was no vote, however, and the document was approved.
Fellow SNP councillor George Farlow claimed that, if he were “being
cynical”, lairds in his Sutherland ward had been “pandered to” because
windfarms in their patch had been barred.
He complained that areas most in need of community benefits from a windfarm
would miss out.
Horrified by the new guidelines, Jim Treasurer of pressure group Friends of
the Great Glen said: “It gives developers a green light. Nothing can
justify the bulldozing of the tops of Scottish mountains and extraction of
thousands of tonnes of carbon-rich peat.”
The revised document replaces the council’s previous windfarms strategy
which was drawn up just 10 years ago at a cost of £550,000 – which
independent councillor Jim Crawford described as “an appalling waste of money.”
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