YOUR VIEWS: Scotland doesn’t need any more wind turbines; and hazard for motorists on NC500 after resurfacing work
Why is massive SSEN infrastructure being welcomed by government?
Letter to the editor from Lyndsey Ward, spokeswoman for Communities B4 Power Companies, Beauly.
On the same day that SSEN announces a big investment in the north of Scotland for its massive infrastructure, we read that their parent company SSE is cutting jobs and pausing or stopping renewable energy projects due to market pressures.
Given that SSEN’s quite literal earth-shattering infrastructure to connect thousands more onshore wind turbines has yet to obtain planning permission, we have to wonder why our energy minister, Gillian Martin, was so quick to gush all over SSEN’s promises when they have no approval and fierce opposition in most, if not all, rural communities that the transmission giant has targeted to industrialise beyond recognition.
Why is this being welcomed by the Scottish government when we all know that Scotland doesn’t need any more wind turbines, especially as we currently have over eight times what OFGEM says we will need as a country in peak winter 2042?
More turbines are for energy export and quite possibly beyond England, given the scale of development there getting approved under Miliband.
The profit is for the multinationals, not Scotland and if there are no guaranteed customers for this over-deployed wind energy, so what?
The energy companies will still trouser millions in consumer-funded constraint payments for switching off their machines.
Ms Martin MSP has met with SSEN on multiple occasions and yet refuses to meet with the very people who pay her wages and are fighting to protect their homes and the natural world from the global investment company’s proposed environmental vandalism.
While it is undeniable that SSEN’s new infrastructure will create some jobs, we have yet to see how many are local, from Scotland or even the UK.
Looking back at the Beauly Denny, many were shipped in from overseas to construct it, and now there is nothing. The dominating pylon line stands speared into iconic landscapes, buzzing and hissing on its own, and all the workers have gone.
Jobs like SSEN’s are temporary, but the misery and mental, physical and financial stress last for lifetimes. The folk in rural, previously peaceful communities who see their businesses and home values plummet, live in a construction traffic motorway for years and watch as the environment is torn up, habitats and wildlife lost and trees hacked down for profit is something many will never ever get over.
If SSE is pausing or stopping development and other Big Energy follows suit, then there will be no need for SSEN’s new substations and overhead lines. With some updating we have enough transmission with what we have now for our needs and more.
SSEN should follow their major shareholders because without projects to connect to their new lines, rural Scotland will be left with the biggest, most expensive consumer-funded white elephant and environmental carnage the country has ever seen.
Hazard for NC500 motorists after resurfacing causes deep verge drop
Letter to the editor from Willie Morrison, Inverness.
After a brief visit to my native Durness with brother David in the middle of last month, I thought it appropriate to stop at this spot on the single-track road, just a few miles south of the village, to snap a delightful advert for the NC500, which must now be gearing up for what I understand is its 10th anniversary season.
Note the sharp edges at the corner, behind the unfazed sheep, where the road has been resurfaced, leaving a sharp drop into the verge for the inexperienced motorist.
The evening three nights before, as David and I arrived in the dark at our (doubly council-taxed) old family home at Sangobeg, we had to seek help for a deeply distressed young motorist who had clipped such an edge, only yards from our house, leaving a shallow tyre from his fashionable sports car in shreds, and him without a spare.
Fortunately, our neighbour there, Iain Morrison, was able to direct him to a mechanic at the Durness Craft Village, who was able to supply an appropriate replacement.
Iain told us of several such incidents involving ripped tyres along the NC500, especially on the 30-mile single-track stretch between Rhiconich and Hope, in the middle of which lies mobile-home drivers' mecca Durness.
A thrilling experience perhaps, for those seeking a little excitement in their trip!
