By Joseph Anderson, Local Democracy Reporter
A rejected wind farm proposal near Ashkirk could be overturned as an appeal
goes before the Scottish Government.
In September, plans for an £8m wind farm at Barrel Law were rejected by
Scottish Borders councillors.
The proposal would have seen seven turbines, of up to 132m in height,
erected on land to the north-west of Roberton, near Hawick.
The company behind the plans, Germany-based ABO Wind, has now submitted an
appeal to the planning and environmental appeals division of the Scottish
Government.
A statement from ABO Wind said: “The planning application complied with all
relevant technical and planning requirements and did not have any
objections from statutory agencies, including the Scottish Environment
Protection Agency, Historic Environment Scotland and the Ministry of Defence.
“The application was refused on the grounds of landscape and visual impact,
though neither Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Government’s
landscape advisor, nor the council’s own landscape adviser recommended an
objection.
“The development site is located within an area identified by the council’s
local development plan as having the ‘highest capacity’ for a wind turbine
development.”
The company faced fierce opposition from local residents, community
councils and Scottish Borders councillors, ever since it first unveiled its
intention to build a wind farm on the site in 2012.
A rejection soon followed, and stemmed from concerns voiced by the Ministry
of Defence over possible interference with the radar systems at RAF
Spadeadam, near Brampton.
The plans were subsequently revised and reduced from eight turbines to
seven, with the MoD withdrawing its objections, and officers from Scottish
Borders Council’s planning department recommending the revised plans for
approval.
However, the council’s planning and building standards committee threw out
the proposals at a meeting in September.
A report put to the committee found that 75 comments had been submitted to
Scottish Borders Council regarding the project, and all but one of those
were objections.
The council also received objections from six community councils that would
be within sight of the wind farm, and Hawick councillors David Paterson and
Watson McAteer also voiced their objections.
The latter wrote to his fellow councillors, imploring them to reject the
wind farm: “This application is a test and should this authority grant the
application it is in danger of sending a signal to all developers that
rejection is simply a temporary set back and that after some fine tuning
reapplication is likely to be successful.
“This approach is debilitating for fragile communities who are being worn
down by commercial enterprises that bring financial muscle to a process
destined to create over proliferation, landscape desecration and wind
turbine blight to a naturally beautiful area of the Borders.
“Members, those I represent can see no valid reason why the previous
rejection is not equally valid today and it is your responsibility to
ensure that this community is listened to.
“It is quite ridiculous that those who live and nurture this area are once
again being called to fight to protect a precious environment, that
includes a perilous roads network, from a profit centred business who have
no interest in the affect their development will have on such a historic
rural community.”
Officers from the Scottish Government’s planning department will now
conduct a site visit at Barrel Law, before notifying the council whether
they have overturned the local authority’s decision.
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