RSPB court battle to block new wind farm ‘could cost 600 jobs’
SCOTTISH business leaders have launched a scathing attack on an animal charity over its campaign to block a £2billion offshore wind farm development.
A group of 30 firms has urged the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Scotland to drop its latest court appeal in a bid to push through the ‘desperately needed’ Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) project.
The members of the NnG coalition argued that as well as bringing 600 jobs to the local area ‘further delays’ in the project would mean the UK risks missing out on future investment from the renewable energy sector.
But RSPB Scotland said it hopes to block the development after studies showed the turbines could kill thousands of sea birds which gather around part of the site in the Firth of Forth in the breeding season.
Coalition spokesman Alan Duncan, of Scotia Supply Chain, said: ‘This is about real people, real jobs and real environmental benefit.
‘Scotland cannot afford to put nationally significant infrastructure projects like NnG at risk’.
The row started when the Scottish Government gave consent to the project in the Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay in 2014, but the RSPB launched a judicial review.
The charity initially won a court victory but it was later overturned, clearing the development and prompting the RSPB to seek a further appeal.
Scotland’s Court of Session last month refused the application for the case to be sent to the Supreme Court, but the RSPB has now applied directly to the UK’s highest court. The charity said it recognises the role renewable energy has in reducing emissions but added the current project could lead to major declines in the population of gannets, puffins and kittiwakes.
The Scottish Government said it is ‘focused on creating a sustainable energy future for Scotland’.
The wind farm project could generate enough power to supply the equivalent of 1.4 million homes.
In an open letter, the NnG coalition wrote: ‘We passionately believe that Fife and the wider areas of east-central Scotland desperately need the benefits the NnG offshore wind farm will bring in terms of jobs and local supply chain activities. Since the wind farm received the green light from Scottish ministers in 2014, technological breakthroughs in the offshore wind sector mean that 60 per cent fewer turbines will now be deployed.
‘Further delays to the project hugely increase the risk of the UK Government promoting alternative sites for offshore wind farms outwith Scotland, resulting in jobs and investment going elsewhere.’
The group signs off the letter: ‘Scotland can ill afford to lose out on the multi-billion pound investment that this project offers to our economy.’
But statistics released by the RSPB show that, as a result of the turbines, in the breeding season the population of puffins in the area would be 25 per cent lower, gannet numbers would fall 21 per cent and kittiwake numbers would drop by 24 per cent.
The populations of guillemot and razorbill would also be affected. RSPB Scotland director Anne McCall said: ‘RSPB Scotland has not taken this decision lightly. However our concerns with the manner in which Scottish ministers’ took their decisions in 2014 remain undiminished.
‘Additionally, the issues of the case and the recent judgment extend beyond simply the impacts of these developments on important seabird populations.’
She added: ‘We are hopeful our application is successful and that we are granted leave to appeal so these important issues of public interest can be considered in detail by the Supreme Court.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said it ‘noted the RSPB’s decision’, adding: ‘The Scottish Government is focused on creating a sustainable energy future for Scotland so that Scotland can meet its obligations to fight climate change, thereby tackling a key threat to marine ecosystems.’