Craig Borland, Senior Reporter
Plans for two wind turbines on a site between Shandon and Garelochhead have
split local opinion – with the two community councils in the area divided
over whether to support the development.
Members of Garelochhead Community Council have voiced their support for the
proposal at Laigh Balernock farm – but a short distance down the lochside,
Rhu and Shandon Community Council say the plans should be refused.
Applicant Robert Hamilton, who farms at Laigh Balernock on Shandon’s
Station Road, has asked Argyll and Bute Council for permission to erect two
turbines, each 48 metres tall to the tip of the blade, along with
associated infrastructure.
The proposed site for the two turbines covers the boundary between the two
community council areas, with the plans placing one of the turbines in the
Garelochhead area and the other in Rhu and Shandon.
Garelochhead CC secretary Alan Pinder told the Argyll and Bute planning
department: “I am registering our combined support for the application, as
agreed at our November meeting.
“We do not believe it will be detrimental to the area visually and we are
in support of the objective, as we believe it to be, of donating, as a
result of expected surplus electricity generated, funds to the local youth
organisation Route (Centre) 81.”
As the Advertiser reported when the plans first went public in October, Mr
Hamilton says he plans to donate £5,000 a year to the Route 81 project
through a ‘community fund’ which will be set up if and when the turbines
begin operating.
But that has cut little ice with the members of Rhu and Shandon Community
Council, whose convener, Jack Rudram, told the council: “On balance, and
somewhat reluctantly, R&SCC feel that this proposal should be rejected as
being out of scale with the needs of an individual farm and because it
intrudes significantly into the views of a landscape which has been
demonstrated, in Argyll and Bute Council’s own document, to have limited
capacity to absorb such development.”
The R&SCC repsonse also says that if permission is granted, community
benefit should be made available to all communities affected, “and in
particular and specifically, the host community, which in this case is Rhu
and Shandon”.
The Rhu and Shandon representatives also criticise the application’s
assessment of the impact on the local ecology and historic environment.
At the time of writing the application had attracted three objections from
members of the public and one expression of support.
The Ministry of Defence, Glasgow Airport, Glasgow Prestwick Airport, the
National Air Traffic Service and the council’s own biodiversity officer all
say they do not object to the application, while SEPA and Scottish Natural
Heritage both declined to comment, saying the application was outwith their
remit.
However, the West of Scotland Archaeology Service says the environmental
report on the application is “inadequate” in archaeological terms.
The council’s environmental protection officer neither supports nor objects
to the application, but has recommended four planning conditions in the
event of permission being granted, all of them aimed at minimising the
noise impact of the turbines.
The plans, and the responses to the application so far, can be viewed by
searching Argyll and Bute Council’s website for the code 16/02662/PP.
The authority’s website gives a determination deadline for the application
of this Sunday, December 11.
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