Dreadful news today. The Lethans WF extension in East Ayrshire has just been given consent by Scottish Ministers. Yet another wind farm in an already saturated landscape around New Cumnock. How many more can they sqeeze in? These will be the tallest consented in the UK and will open the doors for applications for turbines of even greater dimensions causing greater environmental damage. The decision can be found here
“East Ayrshire Council did not object to the application “The Planning Authority acknowledge that wind farms have the potential to impact on a wide range of features and note that the turbines proposed as part of the Application are amongst the largest onshore wind turbines proposed anywhere in the UK at the time of their report. With that, significant adverse landscape and visual
impacts are inevitable. Despite this, the Planning Authority consider that the adverse
impacts are not unacceptably adverse or out of the ordinary, due in large part to the
siting and design of the turbines and proposed aviation lighting mitigation. Historic
environment assets are generally sufficiently distant from the proposed Development
to avoid being significantly impacted.”
How can so much destruction be allowed to be inflicted in one area? While we appreciate some local communities welcome the financial benefit on offer, there are other considerations. NPF4 states that biodiversity must be enhanced. What chance does it have in this industrial landscape?This is a map of the area.
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