The hills were the Allt Duine windfarm would be built. Photo: Chris Townsend
A key outdoors author and broadcaster has joined opponents of a major windfarm development planned for the Scottish Highlands in calling for its rejection.
Cameron McNeish said, with the Year of Natural Scotland just days away, granting permission for the Allt Duine turbines would be hypocritical.
Mr McNeish, former editor of TGO magazine, joined the Save the Monadhliath Mountains campaign in pointing out the irony of Visit Scotland’s campaign to attract more tourists coinciding with the building of 31 wind turbines just yards from the Cairngorms national park.
SMM said: “The Year of Natural Scotland is a campaign which has been devised by Visit Scotland as a means of promoting the country’s famous scenery and national heritage.”
It said 2013 will be a year-long celebration of all that the great Scottish outdoors has to offer, but – with a Government decision on the 31 turbine wind farm proposal to be built on the very edge of the Cairngorms National Park due in the same year – campaigning groups are questioning where Natural Scotland really sits on the Government’s list of priorities.
“The objective of the Year of Natural Scotland is to recognise Scotland’s scenery and heritage as fundamental to its reputation, so it appears contradictory that an area chosen by campaigners to represent these qualities is under threat,” the campaigners said.
“As part of the event’s programme, world-acclaimed landscape photographer Colin Prior visited the area this year and said: ‘Scotland has an inspirational quality in the landscape’.”
SMM said that, in June this year Scottish Ministers signed up to the Cairngorms national park partnership plan for the years up to 2017.
The group said: “In the foreword to the plan, Stewart Stevenson, Minister for Environment and Climate Change, clearly stated the Government’s commitment to ‘ensuring that the park’s stunning landscapes and special qualities are conserved and enhanced for future generations’.
Cameron McNeish: 'need to establish what is more important for the country'
“Should the Allt Duine windfarm go ahead, this decision will not only severely impact on the setting and fabric of the park, but work against the Year of Natural Scotland and the plan’s objectives too.
The Allt Duine scheme represents one of 11 windfarms that either already exists or is at the application stage on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park area.
Campaigners from Save the Monadhliath Mountains – a broad-based coalition with the objective of protecting the Monadhliath Mountains and national park – are concerned about the cumulative effect the turbines will have, as well as the potential damage that may occur to the area’s wildlife and visual amenity, which, in time, will impact on the tourist appeal.
The Save the Monadhliath Mountains campaigners are urging Fergus Ewing, the minister for both the national energy and tourism portfolios, to take full account of the importance of renewable energy targets, the legislation in place to safeguard national parks and what ministers have signed up to when considering RWE Npower Renewables’ Allt Duine application.
Cameron McNeish said: “There is a very fine balance to be struck between nature and renewable energy targets, although, in the case of Allt Duine, granting permission would be a step too far.
“It is ironic that the Government, through Visit Scotland, is championing a campaign to conserve and promote Scotland’s natural beauty, while considering the possibility of granting permission for 31 giant turbines a few hundred metres from the boundary of a national park.
“We need to establish what is more important for the country.
“In my view, it would be entirely hypocritical to grant permission for Allt Duine. I call on Fergus Ewing to urgently reconcile the two parts of his portfolio – energy and tourism – in this case and refuse permission. He has plenty of good reasons for doing so.”
The Allt Duine development is opposed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Cairngorms National Park Authority and Highland Council, in addition to the John Muir Trust, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society and the Glenfeshie, Kinrara and Pitmain estates. Scottish Natural Heritage has expressed considerable concerns, SMM said.
Johnny B
26 December 2012Fergus Ewing/ SNP in general/ most politicians in mainstream politics should be taken to court. They are ignoring independent scientific advice and pursuing with wind farms. The USA is about to announce that it has cut subsidies to wind farm companies as they have proved to be entirely useless. The technology is mature and will not be bettered. Billions wasted. The 'feel' of precious environments in many places erased for at least the next 20 years. It is shocking. The SG should invest in R and D now for other forms of energy (geothermal etc)> WAIT for results > act accordingly. This is not hard. Who are walkers meant to vote for to protect the environment?
Harley Keisch, Wind Wise Radio
26 December 2012While we applaud McNeish for lending his celebrity to the efforts to save a spectacularly beautiful area he is wrong to believe that a "fine-balance" between "nature and renewable energy targets" exists.
First off, pPerhaps McNeish doesn't realize the folks he's appealing to have NO desire to balance anything. The Fergus Ewing's of the world believe that renewable development trumps ALL other considerations -- including the preservation of the views from Cairngorms National Park. (Not to mention someone's favorite view from their own local hilltop, park or garden.)
But more importantly, the fact is that a "fine-balance" is unobtainable because wind energy development does not help solve the problem of human created climate change -- no amount of wind energy development will impact carbon emissions.
Worse yet, wind development consumes massive resources better spent elsewhere, and the installation of these gigantic devices along with the attendant roads, pylons, and transmission facilities often destroy the very essence of what their proponents purport to be saving.
We hope that McNeish will join the more than 1,700 people from 27 countries who have signed a petition asking Alex Salmond and Fergus Ewing to stop the reckless placement of industrial scale wind development on Scotland's scenic lands. The petition will be hand-delivered early in the "Year of Natural Scotland"
McNeish and all readers are invited to join us in that effort at http://chn.ge/VJ0gUn
Malcolm
26 December 2012Mr Keisch,
Surely your petition should not be about the 'reckless placement' of wind turbines? This would simply garner a response along the lines of 'All turbines go through the planning process... Turbines will not be built in NSAs or National Parks... All manner of work is done to mitigate the impact turbines have on the landscape etc.'
I have already signed your petition but I would personally like to see you call for a stop to any onshore wind development in open countryside. I feel that the response from the SNP may then be more direct.
Some friendly advice: contact local radio stations like Two Lochs Radio. Small rural stations would certainly see the relevance of the petition.
In solidarity,
Malcolm
Brenda
27 December 2012I have just watched the first episode of Cameron McNeish's new Scottish National Trail programme and was puzzled by the complete absence of any windfarms, or even a turbine, anywhere in view so far. We are used to the BBC's bias on climate change and wind energy so I can only assume they ensured the views throughout were turbine-free but surely this would have been an excellent opportunity for Mr McNeish to illustrate even a little of the destruction? I wonder if the second episode will manage a similar avoidance of the subject?
Micckl
28 December 2012Just watched Cloud Atlas and in none of the beautiful Scottish scenes were any turbines present. That tells me that the international community associate Scotland with vast swathes of beautiful unspoiled land.
John
28 December 2012Interesting comment Brenda. The programme is about the SNT, not turbines. Personally I'd be frustrated to see him hijack a trial programme (which we all enjoy) to tell us about wind farms (which most of us understand to be more than useless). Also, if you have ever watched countryfile you will see the massive amounts of false info broadcast in their favour. Perhaps he wants to shout about the awful impact turbines have on the landscape but has not been allowed to by his BBC superiors. Also, by showing us turbine free landscapes in all their glory it reminds us that the landscape is worth fighting for. It is our duty as lovers of Scotland's landscape to object to any application even if it is not in an area we have ever visited.
Hamish
28 December 2012Agreed Brenda and John. A solution in that should be implemented immediately to help protect the landscape = make the area from Cape Wrath to Oban a National Park. Includes numerous National Scenic Areas, is currently turbine free and has over 60 Munros in it. Simple.
Rozza
29 December 2012Should grough ask which of "Glenfeshie, Kinrara and Pitmain estates"is paying for the SMM campaign?
Bobbin
29 December 2012Niall Ferguson, IN 2004, wrote this:
http://www.niallferguson.com/journalism/politics/wind-farm-claims-are-so-much-hot-air
All of his points still stand. In fact, all of his points about wind power now have huge amounts of supporting evidence.
This is an historian who read the facts and made a judgement. Why is it so hard for politicians to follow his example. Their views on wind energy are, for the most part, a disgrace.