YOUR VIEW: ‘Politicians are in a headlong rush to bury parts of the north Highlands under a sea of wind turbines and pylons’
Letter to the Editor from Andrew Graham-Stewart, Bonar Bridge.
‘Politicians are in a headlong rush to bury the north under a sea of wind turbines and pylons’
The Kyle of Sutherland will soon, if various foreign conglomerates get their way, have the dubious distinction of playing host to the greatest concentration of onshore wind farms and associated infrastructure anywhere in Scotland.
There are now 15 farms, either operational, under construction, in planning or in scoping, totalling some 300 turbines, within our small local area. We already have far more than our fair share and the overwhelming consensus locally is “enough is enough”.
Further wind farms should be located south of the border, closer to where the energy is required.
The so-called community benefit funds from wind farm companies are little more than a bribe. A new microwave for a village hall or a new strip for a village sports team hardly outweighs the irreversible desecration of our landscapes and local wildlife and ecosystems, on which valuable tourism income depends.
Nor does the local jobs argument stand up. Whilst a few jobs locally may be created in the wind farm construction phase (most of the labour is imported), once a wind farm has been built, there are no local employees.
Given the massive, almost universal, anger around the Kyle about the relentless stream of applications for new wind farms in our area, one might think that our local MSP would champion our cause and reflect our concerns.
But no, this is not the case with Maree Todd MSP. Her stock response is along the lines of: “we all have to do our bit in combatting climate change”, and: “I cannot intervene directly in planning matters”.
Such views do not excuse her abject failure as our MSP to put her head above the parapet and raise the public profile of our concerns, regarding the relentless conveyor belt of planning applications for yet more turbines locally, in the media and the Scottish Parliament.
One can only assume that this reticence reflects her desire not to cross swords with her party colleagues in the Scottish Government. In other words, she is prioritising the party over her constituents.
It is perhaps telling that Maree Todd has thus far failed to attend a local public meeting on these critical matters and hear at first hand the views of her constituents.
It appears that SNP MSPs, the Scottish Government and its agencies are all signed up to UK Minister Ed Miliband’s net zero crusade, whatever the consequences.
Local community views are routinely ignored by planners and the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit. So-called consultations with communities are just tick-box exercises.
The consultation sham has recently been exposed on the Kyle. The company RWE is promoting a huge new 29-turbine wind farm at Inveroykel on the south side of the Kyle with maximum tip heights of an astonishing 230 metres.
RWE has been “awarded rights to develop the land” by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS). This is public land and one might reasonably expect that FLS would consult locally before granting “rights” to a third party. After all, in October 2023 FLS launched its Communities Strategy which was unambiguous in its intentions and scope: “The strategy will help to further empower communities and, by enabling them to have a greater role in creating their own future, will help to make best use of Scotland's national forest and land. It builds on FLS’ established principles of community engagement, whether that is seeking input into the development of its land management plans….”
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However, FLS, in blatant contravention of its published obligations, failed to consult the local community prior to “rights” being “awarded” to RWE, based on a highly questionable technicality – that FLS is the “land manager” and not the “developer”.
This is completely at odds with FLS’ commitment to seek community “input into the development of its land management plans”. Clearly FLS’ Communities Strategy is conveniently abandoned when it is anticipating large annual lease payments.
It seems that there are no limits for Scotland’s political establishment in its headlong rush and determination to bury parts of the north Highlands under a sea of wind turbines and pylons – whatever the collateral impact on and costs to local communities.
Andrew Graham-Stewart
Bonar Bridge
