Quotes from SAS and other groups.
COMMUNITIES inundated with a “flood” of onshore wind farm applications feel as if they are “not being listened to”, campaigners have said. There are more than 5000 wind turbines over 100 kilowatts currently in place across Scotland, with the majority concentrated in the Highland Council area.
But with scores of applications for more wind farms currently making their way through the planning system, campaigners have called for a pause to get a fuller picture of the implications for rural Scotland.
The increase in wind turbine applications has led to campaign groups popping up across the country, in a bid to stop them in their tracks.
In Rosehall, Kyle of Sutherland, one campaign group has described the increase in wind turbine applications as a “flood”, while others have said that communities need more power to be included in the decision-making process.
Colin Gilmour, chair of No Ring of Steel (Noros), a local group opposing the village becoming encircled by wind farms, said: “What started as a trickle became a flood, and we’ve really been, like other places, inundated with them.”
The group was formed in 2017, and the local area has two wind farms in operation – Rosehall, with 19 turbines, and Achany with a further 19. Achany has applied for an extension which would add 18 turbines to the site. The Meall Buidhe wind farm has also been approved, which will see eight turbines erected.
The Strath Oykel wind farm, currently under judicial review after campaigners won a legal battle against the Scottish Government, would see 11 turbines introduced to the area, and there are several projects currently going through the planning process that would add a further 28 turbines.
And, there are 128 turbines currently in the scoping process.
If all are approved, there would be 231 turbines in operation in an area roughly 10 miles by two miles.
Tisi Dutton, a campaigner for the group, told The National: “It’s too much for one area, and I know other areas in Scotland suffer from the same problem, but we’re talking about a very biodiverse area that needs protecting and not industrialising.
“And what this would do, unfortunately, is exactly that.
“We’re not averse to renewable energy, but it has to be the right place and of the right sort.”
Dutton said the group had a good relationship with Highland Council and its planning committee, and that they try to “objectively analyse” each
application for wind farms. Highland Council and reporters both said the Strath Oykel windfarm should be rejected, but were overruled by the Scottish Government.
Last August, Scotland’s highest civil court ruled that ministers had not given adequate reasons for the approval of the wind farm.
Dutton argued that the Strath Oykel case was a prime example of communities “not being listened to” by ministers.
She added that each application that comes in, the public are asked to comment on the Environmental Impact Assessment.
“We’re talking of hundreds, if not thousands of pages of material which amateurs are supposedto look at and have the ability to assess in professional terms, which is stacked against us,” she explained.
Aileen Jackson, a campaigner at Scotland Against Spin, said that communities are being “overwhelmed” by applications for wind farms.
Jackson lives close to Whitelee, the UK’s largest onshore wind farm, on Eaglesham Moor in East Renfrewshire. It has 231 turbines.
The group was established to help local communities oppose wind farms in their area, Jackson explained.
“We can’t cope with the number of applications,” she said. “We’re being ignored by decision makers at a national level. The Scottish Government overrules just about everything, even when their own reporters and their councils say we don’t want this, and the community says they don’t want it, they will still overrule it.”
There have been calls for a pause on wind farm applications. In June last year, more than 50 community councils in the Highlands called for a halt to applications. In January, 40 community councils from the Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian and South Lanarkshire backed the move following a convention in
Jedburgh town hall. Community councils in the north east have also written to the Scottish Government urging a review.
Dutton said that she agreed with a pause, and that there should be a Scotlandwide analysis and understanding of “everything that’s going on, because there is no overall map, there is no overall sensible plan for what is happening here”.
“They blithely say we need all this renewable energy,” she added. “Well, Scotland is sorted, this is all for export to the UK, but what you really need, and what we really want, is for the energy to be generated closer to point of use.”
The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a consultation on calls from Scotland Against Spin to increase the ability for communities to influence decisions for onshore wind farms.
The group wants to see the 50 megawatt threshold – which determines whether applications are decided by Scottish ministers or by the relevant planning authority – increased. The petition also called on funding to be given to local communities so they can “have a chance” at employing an expert or representative at any public inquiry.
“We’re against destroying our best assets with no plan for no other reason than generating profit for foreign companies,” Jackson said.
“What is happening in Scotland is a crime against the population and against nature, and has nothing to do with renewable energy.
“What we’re looking for at the moment is the injection of realism into the energy debate in Scotland, the understanding is already too much renewable energy infrastructure, and adding to the wind and solar farms simply exacerbates existing problems and adds to the costs.”
Energy Secretary Gillian Martin said that increased generation of renewable energy is “critical to the energy security of the country, and have the potential to reduce our reliance of fossil fuels and the price volatility they come with”.
She added: “However it is vital that communities who see the most developments should be directly benefiting from them, including through shared ownership opportunities and community benefits.
“The power to mandate community benefits is reserved to the UK Government and all arrangements in Scotland are on a voluntary basis, supported by our Good Practice Principles. That’s why I have been pressing successive UK Governments to mandate community benefits from onshore renewables.
“We recently published proposals to update our Good Practice Principles for onshore and offshore energy developments so that our community benefit arrangements deliver sustainable, meaningful impacts and help support our just and fair transition to net zero.
The last UK government didn’t act to make community benefits mandatory, I am hopeful that the current UK Government will take a different approach.” https://www.thenational.scot/news/25878203.meet-campaign-groups-fighting-onshore-windfarms/?fbclid=IwY2xjawQKLwdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEesGGKmHxmjTLArDez3SqC55WE2vCd0t0XcrXeR58Xvhxp-7aBFDzdzZyoaTk_aem_6Ovshj8zS9bPNJogjGQsHg
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