Plans for a wind farm in the Scottish Borders have been refused
due to its detrimental impact on the landscape.
The 45-turbine project, sited along the A7 between Langholm
325,000 homes, the developers said
Scottish Borders council and Dumfries and Galloway council
had each also objected to the plans, which were sent to the
Scottish government to examine in October 2021.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) had warned that the
turbines could affect the nearby Roman-era Eweslees watch
tower.
Community Windpower, the firm behind the project, said that it
would have helped to meet national renewable energy targets.
Rod Wood, its managing director, said: “We are obviously
disappointed with this decision. However, we are taking time to
review the reports and decision. We remain committed to
Scotland’s renewable energy industry, businesses and supply
chains.”
A letter informing Wood of the decision, from the Scottish
government’s Energy and Climate Change Directorate, said that
despite measures to mitigate against the effects of the project
“the significant adverse landscape and visual effects, effects on
residential visual amenity and impacts on defence interests at
Eskdalemuir would not be acceptable”.
Local protesters had long campaigned against the plans. Aileen
Jackson, from Scotland Against Spin, a campaign group, told the
BBC’s
Good Morning Scotland programme: “It was a good
decision. We don’t often get many; there are far more that are
consented than refused, unfortunately.
“A lot of that is down to the fact that local communities just
don’t have the resources to be able to fight on a level playing
field with a developer.”
Jackson added that Scotland Against Spin had been
“inundated” in the past few years with local groups wanting to
fight wind farms proposed for their communities. “They are not
going to back down. There is going to be much more resistance”
to future projects, she said.
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