The energy company's visual of how the windfarm may look
Outdoor campaigners have criticised councillors who plan to make a site visit to a controversial windfarm site – by going to a railway more than 10 miles away.
The John Muir Trust urged Highland Council members to pull on their boots and walk on the actual site of the proposed Allt Duine windfarm in the Monadhliath Mountains.
The battle over the development, dubbed by opponents as a windfarm too far, is being seen as crucial test in the clash between the Scottish National Party Government’s renewable-energy policy and campaigners for the preservation of Scotland’s mountain wild lands.
The Mountaineering Council of Scotland joined the JMT in urging councillors, who meet tomorrow, Tuesday, to decide the fate of RWE npower renewables’ application, to throw out the plans.
The Highland Council committee will take a trip to Cairn Gorm’s funicular railway to judge the visual impact of the proposals for the 31-turbine development just outside the boundary of the Cairngorms national park.
The John Muir Trust said: “In December the council’s planning committee decided to conduct a site visit before making a recommendation regarding the planned development.
“However, rather than go to the site itself, on Tuesday the councillors are travelling by coach to the Cairngorm funicular railway – more than ten miles away on the other side of the A9.
Steven Turnbull, policy officer for the John Muir Trust said: “The Allt Duine development will have an immense impact on a valuable area of wild land. It’s disappointing that the councillors will not even go to visit the area that will be affected by the turbines before making their recommendation.
“If the council thinks the site is too inaccessible it seems odd that RWE npower renewables should be allowed to consider building large tracks and 125m-high turbines in this remote and wild place.”
The trust said draft planning guidance by the council proposes that the Monadhliath Mountains should be protected from development. However, a number of applications are already in the planning system and one scheme, Dunmaglass, has been approved.
Mr Turnbull added: “The new guidance should improve things by steering development away from wild landscapes such as the Monadhliath Mountains, but it could be too late by the time it is implemented.”
MCofS president Brian Linington said: “Highland Councillors have an opportunity on Tuesday to demonstrate a long-sighted and enlightened approach to what is fast becoming a clash between the Scottish Government’s energy policy and the superb mountain landscapes for which Scotland is internationally famous.
Councillors will visit the Cairn Gorm funicular railway. Photo: Peter CC-BY-SA-2.0
“We call on them to show leadership to the rest of the nation and demonstrate that whilst we may need renewable energy we do not need it at any price. It is time to value what we have.”
And mountaineer, writer and former MCofS president Chris Townsend, who is a key member of the Save the Monadhliath Mountains group, said: “The SMM campaign group is hugely encouraged with the level of support we’ve received so far, but we want to send a very clear message to the councillors that has been a driving force behind the campaign since the very start: Allt Duine is a wind farm too far.”
A decision on the future of the proposed Allt Duine wind farm was unanimously postponed at the planning committee meeting on 20 December, after the Cairngorms National Park Authority lodged its concerns. SMM campaigners highlighted inconsistencies of the council’s planning officer’s report.
The SMM group said: “Perversely, the officer recommended an objection to the smaller scheme at Moy and none to the larger scheme at Allt Duine. Yet both have been criticised and recommended for objection by the Cairngorms National Park Authority, as both lie in locations that the council’s own policy advocates steering large, medium and small developments away from these areas.”
Mr Townsend added: “The Moy windfarm proposal has already gone to inquiry. All SMM campaigners are asking for is a level playing field.
“We believe that the only fair outcome is that both wind farms are considered by the same decision maker in a public inquiry. The only way that the council can guarantee this is by also objecting to Allt Duine for exactly the same single reason, namely in reliance on the draft spatial guidance that applies to Moy.
“Anything else would be grossly inconsistent and unjust.”
Highland Council’s planning committee will meet at its Inverness headquarters at 2.30pm tomorrow, Tuesday.
alan.sloman
16 January 2012If this is true - that the site inspection will be carried out from a distance of ten miles - it is an utter disgrace.
The councillors of Highland Council should be removed and a new lot put in their place. If they approve the application there should be a legal challenge based solely on their gross negligence.
Chris Townsend
16 January 2012Unfortunately the councillors don't have to make a site visit at all. They could make their decision without leaving the council offices. Legally they are in the clear.
PeteStuart
16 January 2012There will be nothing left of our landscape in the end, all for greed and capitalisim
Deugar
17 January 2012Agree it would be good if they went for a walk - perhaps then they might just 'get it', they might begin to understand what it is we're so passionate about. Views from the Cairngorm side are very much an issue though so it's better than just examining visualizations, which, shocking as they may look, are in my experience distorted as much as they can get away with. A site visit last week by councillors looking to approve 3 BT turbines at Wingates in Northumberland was made by minibus. Whether any of the councillors who will decide on this or who approved the adjacent 6 Infinis 110m ones currently under construction had ever walked up the Simonside hills nearby and contemplated how the open views lift the spirits of so many people, I very much doubt (see http://www.wingatesnotwindfarms.com ).
Trevor Carpenter
17 January 2012- If agreed this, blot on the landscape will have been caused by our past, present and future demands for electricity.
- If it was cheaper to build the turbines elsewhere the 'greedy capitalists' would.
- If we want to object to this scheme, come up with an alternative which is as cost effective per megawatt produced, with the same carbon emissions over its life time.
What are we (society) to do - the energy/emissions problem is massively over constrained, and it is stopping us (and politicians) taking effective action to reduce emissions.
John Graham
18 January 2012The problem is that they know the Minister will probably over-ride their concerns in pursuit of the First Minister's target of 100% renewable. There are various comments by Public Enquiry reporters stating clearly that in their view national targets over-ride local democracy. The Councillor that made much of the fact that many objectors where from outwith the area totally misses the point that the economy of the Cairngorms is driven by Tourism. ie those living outwith the area but who are regular visitors. A bit rich when most applications are padded with large quantities of supporters from organisations like Yes2Wind and employees of the companies developing them, most of whom have never been near Scotland. They also use chugging, where people asked to sign a petition in support of renewable energy do not realise that they are actually signing a paper in support of one developer's wind farm. Often done in venues such as Inverness or Aberdeen, well away from the proposed turbines. The Councillors in this case made the right decision and most don't need to go to the wild places. They were brought up in the area. Look to the arranger of the site visit, the planning officer who supported the application, rather than the councillors themselves. Did he try to mislead? If so it was a total failure as local councillors opposed to the development won the day. Interestingly this is a new Planning Committee which has amalgamated the different HC Planning Committees into one central one. Very positive that this application, the first one under the new form, was rejected despite planning officer support. It is a fact that areas that seemingly welcome wind farms end up being targeted by developers. Those that are openly opposed receive less applications! All down to time and cost.
Sandy
23 May 2013I have been reading a lot of comments on this website and I feel it is only fair to redress the balance a little. I am someone who cares passionately about our landscape and our planet. As such, I look carefully at the alternatives and the issues facing our world.
There IS an energy crisis and nuclear is NOT the answer until the deadly waste generated can be neutralized.
As for loosing our landscape, well what do you think our landscape will look like when the turbines are taken down? Funnily enough the landscape will be 'preserved' in better condition than if the turbines had never been there. Why? Because no other development (farming can continue around the base of the turbines) will be proposed in or within several miles of these turbines. A coal burning station or hydro scheme is not at all reversible.
Could it be that all the contributors who are complaining about this are actually just selfishly concerned about their own visual amenity?
I for one think the First Minister has got it right, and whilst I am not a Scot by birth, I totally support his far farsightedness.