Windfarms

I was disappointed to read Ronald Turnbull’s opinion piece on windfarms in the June edition ('Why walkers should say yes to windfarms'). His starting point – that walkers think all windfarms are ‘in the wrong place’ and by implication oppose all windfarms – is simply wrong. Since 2014 I have had lead responsibility for assessing windfarm planning applications for Mountaineering Scotland. I am a volunteer and am writing here in a personal capacity.

Since 2014 there have been 481 planning applications in Scotland for windfarms of capacity of 20MW and above. Of those where a planning decision has been reached, half have been consented (206/407). Of those, a little more than half have so far been built (119/206). Not only is there a lot more to come, but in recent years applications have steadily moved towards larger turbines (up to 250m tall), in larger numbers, and at higher altitudes.

Mountaineering Scotland has objected to just 31 of those 481 applications. There are many applications that aren’t ideal but aren’t so bad as to merit an objection when balanced against the need to combat climate change. But some are just in the wrong place. Should a re-application for a previously refused site within a designated Wild Land Area next door to Ben More Assynt in Sutherland be ignored? In Ronald’s own backyard, Mountaineering

Scotland has not objected to a massive level of development south-west of The Merrick but at some distance from it. However this week I am at a Planning Inquiry opposing an application to put 18 turbines of 200m height very much closer to it. Is it wrong to protect the view from the highest hill in Southern Scotland?

I will not stop opposing windfarms where they are extremely badly located. Contrary to what Ronald writes, there is no protection in planning for Munros. The two core documents guiding planners’ response to windfarms do not even mention them. Even areas that are supposed to have a degree of protection, such as Wild Land Areas, are getting multiple applications around their boundaries, sometimes even within them. Cairngorms National Park, where no windfarms are allowed, has applications just outside its boundaries.

If people don’t act to try to protect important areas, rest assured that the planning system will not do so of its own accord; and the rapacity of developers knows no bounds.

Dave Gordon